HOUSE Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda has filed a resolution yesterday to investigate and audit the National Solid Waste Management Commission’s (NSWMC) and relevant government agencies on the implementation of Republic Act (RA) No. 9003, otherwise known as the “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000,” which became effective in 2001.

“Despite these legal mandates and budgetary support given in 2016 and 2017 amounting to P1.3 billion, the commission has unjustifiably failed to act on its ministerial function of preparing the list of Neapp (non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging) in the last 20 years,” Legarda pointed out in the resolution.

Under Republic Act 9003, the Commission, which is composed of 14 national government agencies and private sector representatives, is mandated to prepare a list of non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging (NEAPP) within one year after the law’s effectivity, and update every year thereafter.

In a study by Ocean Conservancy in 2015, the Philippines produced 2.7 million metric tons of plastic wastes — more than half a million metric tons of which were leaked to the ocean.

The Asian Development Bank in its report in April 2020 estimated that Manila could have been generating up to 280 tons of extra medical waste per day during the peak of the pandemic.

“Deputy Speaker Legarda’s initiative is a much-welcome development to seriously address the perils of plastics. It is high time to inquire why after 20 years and, despite a progressive and visionary law, we are still among the laggards in mitigating and addressing the worsening plastic pollution problem in the country,” stressed Oceana Vice President Gloria Estenzo Ramos.

An international advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans, Oceana has been working closely with national and local government agencies, civil society, fisherfolk and other stakeholders to restore abundance of Philippine fisheries and marine resources since 2014.