108 local government heads ordered to explain absence of waste management plan

THE DEPARTMENT of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has issued show cause orders to 108 local government unit (LGU) leaders for failure to submit a 10-year solid waste management plan as required under Republic Act 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. “We don’t want another case of Manila Bay. These LGUs have, unfortunately, been accustomed to leniency. The Solid Waste Management Plan is a requirement of law, yet for many years they ignored it,” said DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año in a statement on Feb. 7. Most of the LGUs involved are in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 78. Of this number, 31 are from Lanao Del Sur;18, Sulu; 11, Maguindanao; and 9, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi. The others are: 5 in MIMAROPA (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan); 8, Bicol; 1, Western Visayas; and 4 each in Central Luzon, CALABARZON (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon), Central Visayas, and Eastern Visayas. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras