A senator has underscored the pressing need to end the prevalent problem of plastic pollution all over the country, as she highlighted the worsening threat of plastic waste leakage to the country’s wildlife and marine resources.
Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, rallied for expanded national efforts to dramatically reduce, if not totally stop, plastic use as an initial solution to end plastic-waste pollution throughout the country, especially in urban areas, where plastic products are regularly used as packaging materials.
“The use of plastic products over the years has taken its grim toll on our natural resources. Our marine waters are choking from plastic wastes that have been dumped into our waters. We are ranked third next to China and Indonesia in terms of estimated volume of mismanaged plastic wastes produced by the population that could potentially enter the seas and oceans,” Villar lamented.
Villar acknowledged that “the campaign against plastic consumption has been moving slowly because both manufacturers and users continue to be unmindful of the environmental, climate and health impacts of plastic use.”
The senator made the remarks during the celebration of Earth Day 2018 and the 11th anniversary of the establishment of the 175-hectare Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park as the last coastal frontier of the Asean region. The twin celebrations were held at the wetland park.
“The government needs to take bolder and more innovative measures to control the entry of plastic wastes into our waters, which are destroying our marine natural resources and the habitats of resident and migratory wild birds,” she said.
The senator noted that research findings indicated that the Philippines is included among countries with the most number of plastic wastes being dumped into the seas.
She expressed hope that the government and environmental groups would sustain their ongoing campaigns to stop plastic waste leakages. Villar and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-National Capital Region (DENR-NCR) has partnered to celebrate this year’s Earth Day, which has “End Plastic Pollution” as its theme. It was aptly timed to generate government and public interest in further protecting the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park, a nature reserve with mangroves, ponds and lagoons, mudflats, salt marshes and mixed beach forest.
The wetland park was established through Presidential Decree 1412 as the first critical habitat in the country. It was also recognized as a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention in 2013.
The wetland park consists of two islands—Freedom Island and Long Island, which have been the favorite resting and refueling stops for migratory birds using the East Asian-Australasian Migratory Flyway.
It hosts 41 species of migratory birds, with some coming from as far as China, Japan and Siberia. It has 114 hectares of mudflats, which serve as feeding grounds for wild birds.
The wetland park also has more than 36 hectares of mangrove forest, the thickest and most diverse among the remaining mangroves within Manila Bay. It also has salt marshes, which play an important role in determining the health of a coastal area.
During the twin celebrations, Villar and the DENR joined Greenpeace Philippines in photo exhibit, entitled “Plastic Pollution: Threats and Solutions,” which focused on the issue of plastic pollution and its impact on resident and migratory wild birds.
The exhibit also showcased an installation art that recreated the layers of trash within the beaches of the wetland park to emphasize the magnitude of the plastic pollution in Manila Bay.
At the end of the event, a coastal cleanup at the coasts of the wetland park, where garbage accumulated, was also carried out with the participation of representatives from the local government units of Las Piñas City and Parañaque City, the Department of Public Works and Highways-National Capital Region and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.