The House Committee on Ecology chaired by Zamboanga del Norte Representative Glona Labadlabad approved the substitute bill that would regulate the production, importation, sale, distribution, provision, use, recovery, collection, recycling, and disposal of single-use plastic products.
The substitute measure consolidated 38 bills — one of which was authored by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco –and four House resolutions.
Negros Occidental Representative Francisco Benitez headed the challenging task of consolidating the bills through a Technical Working Group (TWG).
“We need to make sure that we balance the competing interests of single-use plastics regulation with the interest of the industry.”
“The bill was very difficult to craft because it is in a period of the pandemic, and we need to make sure that we balance the competing interests of single-use plastics regulation with the interest of the industry, workers of the plastic industry as well as the very needs of mother nature,” Benitez said.
The substitute measure proposes a transition period and tiers of single-use plastic products that would be regulated in varying degrees.
The measure also proposes to increase the producer’s responsibility to reduce and recover single-use plastic products in the market.
The measure also proposes to increase the producer’s responsibility to reduce and recover single-use plastic products in the market as well as to undertake environmental education to help moderate the consumer’s behavior in using plastics.
Lastly, the measure also specifies sharing of revenues from fees and penalties between the NSWMC and the barangays to help provide the source of funds in enhancing material recovery on solid waste management programs.
The panel also approved the substitute bill to HBs 144 and 8089, authored by Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr., respectively.
The measure aims to establish a national framework for mandatory environmental insurance coverage for owners and operators of environmentally-critical projects.
Marcoleta said the measure would provide ready, immediate and adequate funding for all the damages to health, properties, as well as for the need to remediate and rehabilitate the environment.