Dear PAO,

My neighbor has a habit of sweeping fallen leaves on their backyard. Once she’s done, she puts them in
the garbage dump on their backyard together with other household waste materials and burns them.
Our house is just beside the garbage dump. I am really troubled by her act of burning these waste
materials, because the smoke emitted by them goes toward our house. Is the act of burning waste
materials punishable? If it is, what is the penalty?

Dear Kent,

Embodied in the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or Republic Act (RA) 9003, the law that
finds application to your concern, is the policy of the State to adopt a systematic, comprehensive and
ecological solid waste management program which shall, among others, ensure the protection of the
public health and environment and ensure the proper segregation, collection, transport, storage,
treatment and disposal of solid waste through the formulation and adoption of the best environmental
practice in ecological waste management, excluding incineration.

Apart from this, several acts are prohibited, as mentioned in Section 48 of the law. Included in this
prohibition is the act of open burning of solid waste as provided in Section 48, paragraph 3.

Solid waste as defined in RA 9003 refers to “all discarded household, commercial waste, non-hazardous
institutional and industrial waste, street sweepings, construction debris, agricultural waste, and other
non-hazardous/non-toxic solid waste. Xxx” (Rule III, Implementing Rules and Regulations, RA 9003).
“Open burning” refers to the thermal destruction of wastes by means of direct exposure to fire.
Furthermore, this definition shall apply to traditional small-scale methods of community sanitation or
“siga” (Ibid.).

Thus, your neighbor’s act of burning the fallen leaves and their household waste in their backyard is
included within the ambit of acts prohibited under RA 9003. Hence, she may be penalized. Any person
who violates Section 48, paragraph 3, shall, upon conviction, be punished with a fine of not less than
P300 but not more than P1,000.00, or imprisonment of not less than one day but not more than 15
days, or both (Sec. 49(b), RA 9003).

Violators of Section 48 of RA 9003 shall be subject to criminal proceedings, pursuant to the relevant
provisions of the revised rules on criminal procedure (Rule XIX, Section 2, Implementing Rules and
Regulations, RA 9003).

Any citizen may file an appropriate civil, criminal or administrative action in the proper courts or bodies
against any person who violates or fails to comply with the provisions of the Act (Rule XX, Section 1,
Ibid.).