DILG has Taken Prompt Decisive Steps to Comply with SC Ruling on Manila Bay Cleanup

August 24, 2009

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has taken prompt and decisive steps to comply with a December 2008 ruling of the Supreme Court directing a dozen government agencies to oversee the clean up, rehabilitation and preservation of Manila Bay.

DILG assistant secretary for public affairs Brian Raymund Yamsuan said that Secretary Ronnie Puno and other DILG executives have issued a series of memoranda requiring local government units (LGUs) along Manila Bay to carry out action programs meant to ensure, among others, the establishment and operation of wastewater treatment facilities by bayside companies and residents as well as the imposition of punitive steps against violators.

Yamsuan said that Puno issued last June 2 a memorandum requiring all  mayors of Metro Manila and the governors, municipal and city mayors in Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan Pampanga and Bataan to “inspect all factories, commercial establishments and private homes along the banks of major river systems, and other minor rivers and waterways that eventually discharge water into the Manila Bay, including lands abutting the bay, within your jurisdictions to determine whether they have wastewater treatment facilities or hygienic septic tanks, as prescribed by existing laws, ordinances, and rules and regulations.”

In the same memo, Yamsuan said that Puno had directed the concerned LGU executives to require non-complying establishments and homes “to set up said facilities or septic tanks within a reasonable time to prevent industrial wastes, sewage water, and human wastes from flowing into these rivers, waterways, esteros and the Manila Bay under pain of closure or imposition of fines and other sanctions.”

Following Puno’s memo, Yamsuan said that Bureau of Local Government Supervision (BLGS) director Rolando Acosta submitted on June 10 a draft Manila Bay Action Plan, which had been prepared by the DILG regional offices for Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Region IV-A covering the Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area.

Under this draft action plan, LGUs were given over the June-September period to create regional oversight committees  (ROCs) and teams of field monitors (TFMs) to do the inspection, and, over the September-December period, to organize dialogues with local executives, community leaders and pro-environment groups, as well as conduct on-site monitoring of actions.

In a follow-up memo last Aug. 12, Yamsuan said that Puno directed four DILG officials to draw up a National Database on the number of concerned factories, commercial establishments and private homes “to determine whether they have wastewater treatment facilities or hygienic septic tanks to prevent industrial wastes, sewage water, and human waste from flowing into the rivers, waterways, esteros and the Manila Bay.”

Aside from this central database, Puno likewise instructed the BLGS in the Aug. 12 memo to develop a clean-up audit system, prepare national reports on this audit “with respect to the responsibilities of the Department as stated in the Supreme Court EN BANC decision,” and help establish other intervention programs needed by other central government agencies.

This latest memo was issued, he said, to Undersecretary for special constituency relations Eduardo Soliman Jr. (who is also Metro Manila chief), DILG regional directors Renato Brion for Central Luzon and Josefina Castilla-Go for Calabarzon, and assistant regional director Virgilio Castro for Metro Manila.

Yamsuan said that the DILG has been reporting the progress of such actions to an inter-agency committee, headed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to oversee the national government’s compliance with the Supreme Court ruling.

“This interagency committee has met several times,” said Yamsuan, and it was the DILG’s impression that this panel was the one updating the High Court on the progress of the Manila Bay cleanup and rehabilitation efforts by the various government agencies concerned,” Yamsuan said