EDITORIAL - Environmental infractions

Many have wondered why it took decades for the authorities to act on the many violations committed by a huge piggery in San Fernando town. If not for the complaints lodged by residents nearby, there’s no way government agencies would have discovered the firm’s serious environmental abuses.

The Multi-farms Agro-Industrial Development Corp. reportedly agreed to undertake corrective measures, vowing to stop the practice of releasing wastewater into the sea. Santiago Tanchan III, its president, signed a commitment sheet during an Environmental Management Bureau-7 hearing on March 1.

This comes after the Pollution Adjudication Board of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) slapped the farm with a fine of P14.5 million. This aside from the charges the National Bureau of Investigation filed against its owner and workers for violating the Philippine Clean Water Act and Philippine Fisheries Code.

Well, the firm should be punished for its environmental infractions. Authorities should see to it that those responsible will be brought to court to answer the charges, especially on the violations of the Philippine Clean Water Act and Philippine Fisheries Code, among others.

However, we also have to consider the lapses committed by concerned government agencies. It is highly questionable that the authorities didn’t know about the environmental abuses of a firm has been operating for decades.

The public can only ask whether the DENR, Department of Health and other agencies have been thorough in their monitoring of the farm’s activities, considering that nearby residents have been complaining for years about the foul odor coming from the farm.

Yes we are glad that the piggery’s violations have finally been exposed and that corrective measures are now being put in place. But serious damage to the environment has already been done. Had the proper agencies acted swiftly on the complaints against the piggery, further violations would have been abated.