Lim bans pollutant firms from Manila

MANILA, Philippines – Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim issued yesterday an executive order disapproving all new applications for a permit to do business in the city if the firm could eventually pollute the area.

In Executive Order 19, series of 2009, Lim prohibited the registration or renewal of permits of businesses violating laws and ordinances on clean air, clean water, anti-pollution, public safety and the general welfare of all the city’s constituents.

“No new business which will pollute the environment, pose danger to lives and properties, such as, but not limited to, those classified as extremely pollutive and/or extremely hazardous or pollutive, under Ordinance 8187, shall be registered or allowed to do business in the city,” he said.

Lim also ordered the heads of city planning and development office, bureau of permits and licensing office, city engineer’s office, health department, and department of public services to strictly comply with and enforce the executive order.

Lim said last May 28, he approved Ordinance 8187 which reclassified land in Sta. Ana and Pandacan as medium and heavy industrial zones into pollutive/non-hazardous; pollutive/hazardous; highly pollutive/non-hazardous; highly pollutive/hazardous; highly pollutive/extremely hazardous; pollutive/ extremely hazardous; and non-pollutive/extremely hazardous.

Lim said the city will undertake the evaluation and inspection of these industries that had been existing and registered prior to May 28,.

With regard to new industries still to be registered, Lim said they shall be required to strictly comply with all laws and rules on clean air, anti-pollution and other related measures.

Confusing order

Manila Councilor Ma. Lourdes Isip-Garcia yesterday scored Lim’s new executive order as totally confusing and deceptive.

“Mayor Lim’s new EO 19, series of 2009, is a direct contradiction of Ordinance 8187 which he himself just signed recently,” Isip-Garcia said in a statement.

Isip-Garcia said while EO 19 will prohibit the operation of businesses that are hazardous to the environment, Lim “just signed Ordinance 8187 which allows the introduction of hazardous and pollutive industries.”

She also said Ordinance 8187, “repeals or amends Ordinance 8027 and Ordinance 8119, the two ordinances which truly protect the environment and ban hazardous and pollutive industries.”

Isip-Garcia said the new EO “does not mention the oil depots, the biggest source of hazardous and pollutive substances. In other words, the new EO deceptively veers the issue away from the matter which really counts – the location of the depots in Pandacan and the danger it poses.”

She said Ordinance 8187 has a “stronger legal ground to stand on” compared to EO 19, which “bans these very same industries. It’s an ‘about-face’, and done in just a couple of weeks.”