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Friday, March 29, 2024

108 local execs in hot water

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The Interior department has issued show-cause orders against 108 local chief executives over their failure to craft a 10-year solid waste management plan as mandated by law.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Thursday the order was part of the government’s efforts to enforce environmental laws similar to what it did in Boracay and what it was now doing in Manila Bay.

“We don’t want another case of Manila Bay. These LGUs have, unfortunately, been accustomed to leniency,” Año said in a statement. 

“The Solid Waste Management Plan is a requirement of law yet for many years they ignored it. Hence, we have no recourse but to issue show-cause orders to them.”

Año said the local chief executives would be given 10 days from receipt of the orders to explain why they should not be charged over the failure of their LGUs to comply with the policy.

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“If we are serious about protecting the environment, we really have to follow through with the implementation of these laws,” Año said. 

The laws have long been enacted but they lack implementation, so we continue to have problems like what happened in Boracay and Manila Bay. The law is the law and we will implement it.” 

Without naming the local chief executives, the DILG said of the 108 localities that would receive such order, 31 were from Lanao del Sur, 18 from Sulu, 11 from Maguindanao, nine each from Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, five from Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), eight from the Bicol region, one from Western Visayas and four each from Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas.

Interior Assistant Secretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said they would release the names of the LGU officials once they had received their replies and validated their explanations and if the agency found them to be negligent in the performance of their functions. 

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