DENR to assist LGUs in closing illegal dumps?

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to extend technical assistance to local government units (LGUs) to help them get rid of illegal dumpsites that pose significant threats to the environment and public health.?               

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said the DENR, through its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), would closely coordinate with the LGUs in the formulation of closure plans for these dumps.?               

“We are here to help the LGUs comply with the law that strictly bans all forms of open dumping,” Cimatu said, referring to Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.?               

“As partners for change with LGUs, the DENR will ensure the protection of the environment and well-being of the people,” Cimatu said.?             

He said that the EMB can provide technical advice to LGUs in coming up with their respective 10-year solid waste management plans, as mandated by RA 9003.?             

The 17-year-old law provides the legal framework for the country’s systematic and comprehensive ecological solid waste management program that ensures the protection of public health and the environment.?                            

A study conducted by the National Solid Waste Management Commission noted that every person living in Metro Manila produces 0.7 kilogram of waste daily.?               

In Baguio City, an environment group said environmental plunderers and polluters have found former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Cimatu the right man for the DENR.

Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said mining industry lobbyists, who decried the supposed lack of technical proficiency of the previous DENR leadership under Gina Lopez, did not raise a hoot about Cimatu’s complete lack of credentials in environmental science.

“Being a hypocrite is apparently not a problem when your lobby money is already making a hefty return on investment,” Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the group, said in a statement earlier this month.