ENVIRONMENTAL groups on Tuesday called for the amendment of the Environmental Impact Assessment System law which was found to be ineffective in determining the impact of development projects to the environment.
The groups cited a review by the Davao-based watershed advocacy group Interface Development Interventions (Idis) of the law which pointed out that its current implementing guidelines—the Department Administrative Order (DAO) 2003-30 watered down the essence of the law.
The Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System was established under Presidential Decree 1586, they said, has to be reviewed by the Congress, to strengthen environmental protection for development projects.
The EIS law requires all government and corporate companies to prepare an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for any environmentally critical project (ECP), or any activity situated within the environmentally critical areas (ECA) to determine the project’s impact on the quality of the environment.
“DAO 30-2003 [of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, or DENR] changed the previous guidelines which had explicitly called for mandatory consultations, social acceptability and other environmental safeguards in the EIS system,” Idis Advocacy Coordinator Chinkie Pelino said.
Idis commissioned the legal study from the alternative law group Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panlegal (Saligan) in 2011. In its review, Saligan pointed out that DAO 30-2003 is inconsistent with the precautionary principle of the EIS law.
“Under DAO 30-2003, only projects that pose potential significant impact to the environment shall be required to secure ECC’s [environmental clearance certificate]. Clearly, this goes against the principle that an ECP, or a project in an ECA is required to secure an ECC, hence misconstruing the letter of the law,” the Saligan report said.
The other weaknesses of the IES law pointed out by the study, such as the watering down of the previous DAO 37-1996 provisions of public participation and social acceptability. It says that the conduct of mandatory public hearing was limited to ECPs; holding of public hearing is now at the discretion of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMA), and stakeholders should be thankful for any token consultation that project proponents conduct.
The definition of stakeholders was also changed, according to the study, restricting them to “entities who may be directly and significantly affected by the project or undertaking.”
This, the study noted, is a step backward to the more inclusive definition in the old guidelines, which define stakeholders are persons who may be significantly affected by the project or undertaking, such as, but not limited to, members of the local community, industry, local governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and peoples organizations (Pos).
Also, under DAO 30-2003, not all projects with ECCs are required to form multipartite monitoring teams (MMT). An MMT is the multisectoral body setup to monitor the proponent’s compliance to the conditions of the ECC. MMTs are now only required for ECPs, and MMT reports are only required to be submitted twice a year and not quarterly.
BAN Toxic Program Manager Evelyn Cubelo said in a statement that “these weaknesses have resulted in an EIS law that is considerably lax in implementing environment safeguards.”
Cubelo pointed out that there are no existing provisions in the environmental law that mandates safeguards, such as for small-scale mining.
She said that small scale industries, which pose a danger to the environment, should also be covered by the EIS.
“There should also be multipartite monitoring teams, as well as the provision of mitigation measures to protect the workers and the environment,” she said.
“Given the threats to climate and biodiversity posed by various resource extraction development projects, we need to have a more responsive EIS law that will incorporate international environmental principles, like the precautionary principle.” Pelino said.
Pelino also called on the DENR to amend current procedural guidelines on the implementation of the EIS law.
“We urge the DENR-EMB to convene a technical working group to improve DAO 30-2003. Given the reality that there are a lot of resource extractive industries trying to gain a foothold on our natural resources, we need to immediately address the loopholes in the current law,” she said.
There are two proposed EIS bills currently pending in Congress. The first was filed by the Akbayan party-list group and the second, by Liberal Party Rep. Ma. Lourdes Acosta-Alba of Bukidnon.