About 100 environmental and climate justice advocates denounced on Wednesday a legislative measure which, they said if enacted into law, would lift the landmark waste incineration ban under the Clean Air Act or Republic Act No. 8749.
The EcoWaste Coalition said these advocates gathered in front of the Batasang Pambansa to slam House Bill No. 3161 introduced by Caloocan City 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice.
Erice’s bill seeks to amend Section 20 of the Clean Air Act to allow the use of incinerators to burn municipal, bio-medical and hazardous wastes in light of the country’s garbage problems.
EcoWaste also submitted a position paper to Manila 5th District Rep. Amado Bagatsing, chairman of the House Committee on Ecology, asking the committee not to back HB 3161.
The bill is only a “regressive step that can only worsen instead of solving the country’s garbage problems,” the EcoWaste said.
In its position paper, the group urged the committee to uphold the full implementation of the Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (R.A. 9003), which also prohibits waste incineration.
Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, said in a statement that incineration of waste transforms the garbage into a air pollution which would be more difficult and costlier to deal with. [PNA]
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