DAVAO CITY – The sudden issuance in a conditional Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) to the Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) project in Tampakan, South Cotabato is symptomatic of the weakness in the country’s environmental law, said the Interface Development Interventions, Inc. (IDIS).
IDIS Executive Director Ann Fuertes took to task the latest procedural manual of the Philippine Environmental Impact System (EIS) which she said is viewed by many environmentalists as “ a step backward in terms of environmental regulation.”
“This ‘conditional ECC’ is the result of a streamlined EIS process which was made possible by a the revision of a DENR Department Administrative Order , resulting in a law that is biased for investment.”, Fuertes said.
In 2010, IDIS commissioned the Sentro ng Alternatibong Panligal (SALIGAN) to conduct a legal study on the impact of the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the EIS system.
The study, which was funded by the Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE), compared the current DENR Department Administrative Order (DAO) 30-2003 with its previous iteration, the DAO 37-96.
According to the study, DAO 30-2003 differed from DAO 37-96 in that it lacked teeth to enforce the mandatory requirements in the issuance of an ECC.
“In particular, the study found out that DAO 30-2003 had significantly weakened the provisions which were designed to strengthen public participation and social acceptability in environmental projects.” , Fuertes revealed.
As an example, Fuertes pointed out that DAO 30-2003 has removed the mandatory nature of public hearings, relegating the decisions to conduct a hearing to the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) – a scenario that most development workers are not comfortable with.
“The study even interviewed respondents which revealed that these public hearings- or scoping sessions, as they call them- are often token in nature with facilitators asking only safe questions.”, she said.
To compound the problem, the DAO has also changed the definition of stakeholders to mean only the entities who are directly and significantly affected by the project or undertakings.
“This means that other communities or groups who are affected but not in a direct manner are considered outsiders and excluded from the consultation process.”,she said.
“As it stands, the DAO 30-2003 seems to promote an investment-friendly climate rather than a preventive approach in ensuring that the project will not cause a significant negative environmental impact.”
Fuertes called on the Aquino administration to revise the law. “We need to amend the EIS law to ensure that it goes back to its original intent which is to uphold the precautionary principle. By doing this, we ensure that the EIS law becomes preventive and not prescriptive. Only then can we prevent other destructive, resource extractive and socially unacceptable projects from operating in the country in the future.”, she said. (#)
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