AN OFFICIAL of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has urged local government unit (LGU) leaders to come up with their own 10-year solid waste management plan.
“Those mayors who have approved solid waste management plan already, I won’t dare say that your plans are correct. There are many of you who find hard time implementing your plans, especially those who belong to 3rd and 4th class municipalities,” DENR Undersecretary Benny Antiporda said.
Antiporda reminded the mayors to make amendments in their plans to conform with what they promised to their constituents.
He acknowledged that poorer municipalities find it difficult to manage their solid wastes, considering the cost of constructing and maintaining a sanitary landfill.
“And our dream of having WTE (waste to energy) project remains a dream and remains unfulfilled because of its cost,” Antiporda said.
“Gone are those days that the mayors were victims of corrupt practices in seeking approval of their solid waste management plan,” Antiporda said, noting that under the Duterte administration, the department is committed to fast-track the approval.
“When Secretary Roy Cimatu put me as in-charge of solid waste management commission, we improved the passage of the 10-year solid waste management plans,” he noted.
In just seven months, the DENR was able to approve 568 percent of applications covering 65 approvals, as compared to only one single plan approved in 2016, he said.
Antiporda also pressed them to come up with an approved permanent plantilla position of a Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Officer (MENRO), saying having only a designated environmental officer would not warrant accountability.
“LGUs should have a permanent MENRO, not just a designated one, so that we know who is going to be answerable to the national government in cases of non-compliance to the solid waste management law,” he said.
Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 provides for a comprehensive ecological solid waste management program by creating the necessary institutional mechanisms and incentives, appropriating funds, declaring certain acts prohibited, and providing penalties to violators.