Atienza wants LGUs' waste handling subsidies adjusted

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza has “strongly recommended” a change in the national policy on the financial support given to local government units (LGUs) in their efforts to manage garbage in compliance with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act 9003).

Atienza said he is inclined to endorse to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board the modification of the national policy on waste management, noting that certain LGUs “are finding it difficult” to comply with RA 9003.

Under the Act, LGUs were directed to convert all open dumps into controlled dumps, which should have been closed five years after the law was passed in February 2000. The law took effect a year later.

Atienza said the subsidy that LGUs must get from the national government to help them in their respective waste management programs should be adjusted to enable them to comply with the law.

He admitted that the main problem being faced by LGUs was on the financial aspect, stressing that conversion of dumps is costly.

Atienza proposed that first- and second-class cities, which currently do not receive government support, must be given 40 percent subsidy, and third- and fourth-class cities, 25 percent subsidy.

He said first-class cities must be given a larger subsidy, considering the bigger volume of garbage they churn out.

He added that cities usually spend 50 percent of their income on garbage management, such as hauling.

Atienza’s latest statement, however, apparently contradicted his directive last May.

Last May 5, Atienza issued a six-month ultimatum to LGUs to shut down dumps in their respective jurisdictions, acknowledging that provisions of RA 9003 on the closure of open dumps have long been ignored and thus, unimplemented.

He said LGUs have been given “sufficient time” to comply with RA 9003, and even lamented that there were still 826 open dumps all over the country even when the law had long taken effect.

Atienza also warned that LGUs who failed to comply with his order would be charged appropriately for violating RA 9003.

Yet, Atienza now said he was merely “accepting the validity of their (LGUs’) concerns,” hinting that no LGU is going to be sanctioned even as his six-month ultimatum has lapsed.

Section 1, Rule 13, of RA 9003 provides that within three years from the effectivity of the law, all open dumps should have been converted into controlled dumps. 

This law, however, also provides that controlled dumps must be operated only within five years from its enactment.

If RA 9003 was strictly followed, all open dumps should have been closed or converted into controlled dumps by Feb. 16, 2004, and all controlled dumps should have been shut down by Feb. 16, 2006.

DENR records, however, show there are still 359 controlled dumps nationwide, including four in Metro Manila.

Since Atienza issued the directive, environmentalists have been closely monitoring the DENR’s efforts to make sure that it would fulfill its commitment to enforce the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 this time.

Greenpeace and the Ecological Waste Coalition (EcoWaste) are pushing for the closure, clean-up and rehabilitation of all dumps throughout the country, pointing out that these dumps produce leachate and emissions that poison the soil, water and air.

These emissions are all major sources of greenhouse gases that cause climate change, they said.