No ordinance, no disposal for seizes LPG cannisters

By Cheneen R. Capon
Davao City’s Business Bureau is yet to dispose the 4,000 confiscated butane canisters refilled with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) due to lack of a corresponding ordinance.
“The confiscated canisters are temporarily stored at the city’s sanitary landfill,” bureau chief lawyer Lawrence Bantiding said during the I-Speak media forum yesterday.
The canisters were confiscated last year from vendors who were mostly operating in different public markets in the city.
“We’re still waiting for the approval of the ordinance which will cover the proper disposal of these refilled canisters as well as other hazardous and flammable chemicals,” Bantiding said. “It is already in the office of the City Legal for legal opinion.”
The proposed measure has not been sponsored by any city councilor in the council.
Bantiding said the executive order inked by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in May of 2014 did not include mechanisms on disposing confiscated refilled canisters.
The EO 23 only focused on the creation of a multi-agency task force that will “regulate and ensure safe practices of persons and entities handling and engage in business involving flammable abnd dangerous chemicals and other hazardous and toxic substances.”
Under the order, the local government unit of Davao City has the power to confiscate refilled canisters as well as revoke permits of businesses engaged in the illegal refilling. “There is still no licensed butane refilling station in the Philippines,” he added.
Late first district Leonardo R. Avila III had earlier proposed an ordinance that will prohibit the transportation and selling of illegally-refilled butane canister with LPG.
The task force has already confiscated a total of 3,000 canisters, which were still undisposed because of the lack of a final disposal facility.
There is no existing law that regulates the refilling, transportation as well as selling of this refilled canister. Only the product standard of the Department of Trade and Industry looks into the matter.
The confiscation also did not fall under the mandate of the Bureau of Fire as defined by the Fire Code of the Philippines.
But, petroleum and energy regulator Department of Energy (DOE) has already issued a statement that refilling butane canister is illegal because of its “inherent danger”.
Meanwhile, DOE- Mindanao Field Office reiterated the danger of using illegally refilled canisters.
The problem is that refilled butane canisters are cheaper compared to 14 to 15 kilogram of LPG tanks which only costs P630, DOE science research specialist Nilo Geroche said.
“Each canister costs P25 and can last three to five days,” Geroche said. However, he said the public will be able to save from using LPG rather than refilled butane canisters.
“Do not compromise your safety,” he said yesterday.