By Madelaine B. Miraflor

Big multinational firms were among the companies in the country that Senator Cynthia Villar mentioned when she discussed about solid waste and how these firms have been contributing to the worsening garbage problem in the country.

Villar, who chairs the Senate committees on Environment and Natural Resources, said the government should now act to make companies more accountable for their plastic waste.

In a clean-up drive it did in Manila Bay in September last year, the group particularly recovered 54,200 pieces of plastic waste from Manila Bay.

Now, Villar particularly wants to amend the Republic Act (RA) 9003  or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act particularly “for the manufacturers and producers of plastic products to be more responsible for the waste they are producing”.

“I’m pushing to amend RA 9003. It has to be amended and reviewed after 17 years and modernize some of its provisions,”  Villar said.

“The country’s problem on plastic waste is alarming. We are the third biggest producer of plastic and it endangers our food security because if fishes accidentally ate them, they will die,” she added.

Villar said she’s looking to amend the law in a way that there should be “extended producers responsibility”. Through that, if a company produced a product, then it’s also its responsibility to retrieve the waste.

“We’re pushing to make manufacturers more accountable for the life cycle of their plastic products. As of now, there’s still a lot of non-compliance among them,” the senator further said.

Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu promised to make the full implementation of RA 9003 as one of his top priorities soon after he assumed the DENR post in May last year.

He said that poor waste management is not only a source of pollution but it also negatively impacts the environment and public health.

“The issue of solid waste management has hounded us for many decades now. It is time that we address this once and for all, and ensure that we walk the talk,” Cimatu said.

“When we live in unsanitary conditions, we breathe polluted air and dirty water comes out of our faucets. These violate our basic right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being,” he added.

Cimatu was on his third month in office when the DENR ordered the permanent closure of the Payatas sanitary landfill in Quezon City due to serious environmental violations and susceptibility to trash slide.

In June last year, Cimatu put to task the municipal government of Malay in Aklan for the garbage problem on Boracay Island which at the time was a major public and environmental concern in one of the country’s top tourist destinations.

Tags: Cynthia Villar, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, garbage problem, Manila Bay, Natural Resources, plastic waste, waste management

DOJ clears the cops’ station commander Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo ‘because there was the absence of conspiracy’

By Vanne Elaine Terrazola

The Senate has moved for the transfer of Office of Civil Defense (OCD) deputy administrator Nicanor Faeldon to the Pasay City Jail due to his continued contempt citation.

Former BOC commisioner Nicanor Faeldon shows a sign asking permission to go to the bathroom after having a heated argument with Sen. Gordon during the Senate hearing on the 6.4-B shabu shipment from China today. (Photo by Jansen Romero)

Senator Richard Gordon, Blue Ribbon committee chairman, said the Senate has agreed to submit Faeldon under the custody of the Pasay City Jail, following the resumption of the probe on alleged corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) today.

“I just want to make it formal that the Senate unanimously declared that Mr. Faeldon, formerly of Customs, would remain to be charged with contempt and he will now be remanded to the custody of the Pasay City Jail upon order of commitment by the Senarte President,’ Gordon said in his manifestation during today’s afternoon session.

Faeldon may be transferred to the city jail anytime within the day, information reaching Senate reporters said.

Faeldon has been detained in the Senate compound since September last year after he was cited for contempt for repeatedly refusing to attend the Senate inquiry.

Meanwhile, Gordon said Faeldon should “see a psychiatrist” for his demeanor in the Senate.

He made the proposal as he slammed Faeldon for being “arrogant” and deliberately evading the Senate blue ribbon committee’s probe into the alleged ‘tara’ system at the Bureau of Customs (BOC), which resulted in the release of the P6.4-billion illegal drugs from China.

The Blue Ribbon panel chair said Faeldon is being “selective in his respect, citing the latter’s reason for attending the hearing. At the start of the hearing, Faeldon, lashing out at Gordon, said he showed up because is “now a government employee, not because I expect that you will lead this committee to find out the truth.”

Gordon, concluding Faeldon’s attitude after the hearing, said, “He lives in his own world. I think he should see a psychiatrist, and I really mean that.”

With such an attitude despite the controversy he had figured in, the senator said he “agrees” that President Duterte may have “made a mistake” in appointing Faeldon to the OCD.

“I don’t think the President has any business appointing this guy. How many times should we forgive those who plot a coup against the government…those erring officials who escape when they get caught,” he said.

Gordon said he “strongly suggests” that the President appoint someone more competitive especially that Faeldon faces possibility of longer detention.

The senator lamented the Department of Justice’s dismissal of the case filed against Faeldon and other BOC officials linked to the smuggling of 604 kilos of ‘’shabu’’ (crystal meth) seized in May, while the Senate has yet to conclude its investigation on the issue.

He said this may have boosted the confidence of Faeldon to “disrespect” the Senate.

Tags: BOC, contempt, Faeldon, Gordon, Manila Bulletin, Pasay City Jail, Senate

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading the measure that would do away with the lengthy and costly judicial process of marriage annulment.

House Bill No. 6779, authored by Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia and Leyte 1st Dist. Rep. Yedda Marie Kittilstvedt-Romualdez, was passed with 203 votes on Monday afternoon.

The said measure would provide for church annulment decrees to have the same effect as annulment and dissolution rulings by the courts, making civil proceedings unnecessary for religious marriages.

It would also provide that the custody and support for children, and the liquidation, partition and distribution properties be agreed on by the spouses and embodied in a public document.

Church annulment decrees would have to be recorded in the appropriate civil registries along with the spouses’ agreement on child custody and the properties.

The former spouses would be allowed to remarry after complying with the recording requirement as well as the requirements of the Family Code of the Philippines.

The bill would apply to marriages duly and legally solemnized by a priest, minister, rabbi, or presiding elder of any church or religious sect in the country.

Currently, the State only recognizes the civil effect of divorce under Sharia, or Islamic, law.

Romualdez cited Pope Francis’ call for a “briefer annulment process that involves the local bishop, and requires only a single judgment, dropping the need for an automatic appeal to a higher tribunal” in proposing the civil recognition of church annulment decrees. /atm

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