While speaking before the Philippine Environment Summit in Cebu City earlier this week, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu suggested manufacturers must be held responsible when consumers throw away products that contribute to the problem of accumulating garbage.

“We must consider enacting laws that will make manufacturers pay, at least, part of the cost of cleaning up the non-biodegradable packaging that they use,” he said. “Judging from the volume of plastic and other waste that ends up in our rivers, lakes, and seas, we have not done enough.”

Senator Cynthia Villar, who chairs the Senate environment committee, earlier affirmed such a provision was being considered in a proposed amendment to RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

Recently, the DENR secretary has been heeding the call by President Rodrigo Duterte to clean up resort destination Boracay. As of last week, around 300 closure notices were issued to various business establishments on the island; along with 51 violation notices, claiming certain businesses were non-compliant with RA 9275, or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004.

Cimatu noted, around 50 to 60 percent of establishments are in compliance with the law, contradicting claims earlier made by Boracay Foundation Incorporated (BFI), which stated, “Most of the island’s business establishments are strictly in compliance.”/PLL, WDJ