MANILA -- EcoWaste Coalition, a grassroots environmental network, said President Benigno Aquino III failed to show adequate leadership in solving the country's longstanding problem on garbage.
The group, which gave the President a score of 2.65 points out of 10, said his government has failed to shut down "polluting" dumpsites and overturn costly "obsession" with technology fixes such as landfills and incinerators.
Specifically, the government ranked lowest in terms of integrating waste pickers in ecological solid waste management programs, enforcing the ban on waste incineration, and prohibiting the open burning of discards.
The administration likewise fell short in disallowing the entry of toxic waste, ensuring the environmentally-sound management of hazardous waste materials such as electronic waste, and in directing the closure, cleanup and rehabilitation of illegal dumpsites.
EcoWaste said the low score should serve as a reminder to the government of not being remiss in its duty on zero waste resource management, according to its president Roy Alvarez. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)