Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders – Cebu ... - UNEP

Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders – Cebu (2009)
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Summary Data Sheet
Table 11 summarizes the process and level of stakeholder participation in SWM in the city.
Measures should be taken to encourage waste generators and LGUs to comply and go beyond
mere compliance in proper treatment and disposal of wastes.
To many residents, waste treatment and disposal seemed to be a territory of the LGUs and not
their own. Yet, ideally, waste generators should be active in participating in all levels of the
waste management chain, from mere compliance to vigilance on the compliance of other sectors.
Regulatory institutions, on the other hand, face difficulties in monitoring and enforcement,
mainly because they lack human and financial resources to do so. Recently, two major issuances
did little to elicit major response from concerned LGUs. First is the 3-Strike Policy issued in
2008 to non-complying LGUs and second is the EO 774 wherein another six-month ultimatum
was given to LGUs regarding the closure of their open or controlled dumpsites. Lest the LGUs
become anesthetized on such issuances, the government should take on more innovative and
proactive approaches to get LGUs to comply.
Industries’ solid waste management is mainly self-monitored because regulatory bodies like the
EMB do not have the capability to examine the performance of individual companies.
NGOs like Sagip Pasig Movement (based in Manila) embarked on a public disclosure program
or shame campaign to expose to the public industries not complying with effluent standards.
Using data from the periodic monitoring of EMB Manila, the list of top polluters were given to
the media. SPM then called on the public to boycott the products of the polluting industries. The
campaign has resulted to major impacts in industry environmental performance in Metro Manila.
Later, it gave birth to numerous enabling partnerships between SPM, their partner communities
and former Lason sa Ilog (Poison to the River) Awardees. 9
It is certainly acceptable to engage in such radical measures to reiterate the urgency of RA 9003
compliance. However, this time, LGUs will be the ones at the receiving end.
9 Personal observation as SPM consultant.
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Extracted from the report “Converting Waste Plastics to Fuels – Baseline Study Project. Activity II-2: Assessment of
Plastic Waste Management Systems and Practices - A. Cebu City, Philippines”