Senators pushing for total ban on single-use plastics

MANILA, Philippines — Senators are pushing for a total ban on single-use plastics, which they warned are more destructive to the environment than previously thought.

Sen. Pia Cayetano has called on the Senate to do its share in supporting the global movement to ditch single-use plastics and reduce plastic pollution.

In a brief manifestation during Monday’s session and as part of the celebration of “Plastic-Free July,” Cayetano reiterated her plastics-free advocacy by urging fellow senators not to contribute to the generation of plastic waste in the country.

She enjoined her colleagues to adopt a policy of prohibiting PET bottles in plenary or during Senate hearings.

As an alternative to plastic, the senator had bamboo tumblers distributed to her colleagues in the session hall.

This was not the first time that Cayetano made an appeal to the Senate to be more environment-conscious in the performance of duties.

In 2012, Cayetano wrote a letter to the Senate Secretariat suggesting that water dispensers be set up in the Senate halls, instead of distributing bottled water during session and public hearings.

“This was adopted at that time, but I don’t really know what happened in the (last) Congress because I wasn’t here. So may I propose that we adopt it once again, especially since it is July, which is No-Plastic Month?” Cayetano told her colleagues.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on environment, also sought the ban on single-use plastics throughout the country.

Villar said she would push for a review of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 with the objective of amending it to strengthen provisions against single-use plastics.

The senator cited international studies that predicted that by 2050, there will be more pieces of plastic wastes in the oceans than fishes, which will soon die due to plastic ingestion.

She added that it was embarrassing for the country that it ranks third in the world in terms of plastic pollution.

Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Pangilinan has filed a bill that will support farmers to go organic amid expected higher profits and health benefits.

Pangilinan filed Senate Bill 34 or the proposed Act Providing for the Development and Promotion of Organic Agriculture, which seeks to prioritize small farmers in the delivery of support services to make farming sustainable.

The bill provides representation to non-government organizations and farmers in the National Organic Agriculture Board to ensure that their concerns are addressed.

“We need to show our farmers that organic farming will be worth their while and will be sustainable to encourage them to contribute to the country’s growing number of advocates of non-traditional method of agriculture,” Pangilinan said.

“Organic farming yields profit and healthier produce. It is time it played the role it deserves in feeding a rapidly growing population,” he added. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Louise Maureen Simeon