SPECIFIC PROHIBITED ACTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS RELATED TO

CLIMATE CHANGE:

A. Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990 (RA
6969)

Under RA 6969, it is prohibited to cause, aid or facilitate, directly or indirectly, in the

storage, importation, or bringing into Philippine territory, including its maritime
economic zones, even in transit, either by means of land, air or sea transportation or
otherwise keeping in storage any amount of hazardous and nuclear wastes in any
part of the Philippines. (Sec. 13, d, RA 6969)

B. Water Code of the Philippines (PD 1067)

PD 1067 provides for limitations on the easement of public use (for recreation,
navigation, floatage, fishing and salvage) of the banks of rivers and streams and the
shores of the seas and lakes throughout their entire length and within a zone of three
(3) meters in urban areas, twenty (20) meters in agricultural areas and forty (40)
meters in forest areas, along their margins. (Art. 51, PD 1067)

The law also provides that government may construct necessary flood control
structures in declared flood control areas, and for this purpose it shall have a legal
easement as wide as may be needed along and adjacent to the river bank and outside
the bed or channel of the river. (Art 55, PD1067)

C. Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018 (RA 11038)

RA 11038, as amended, enumerates prohibited acts within protected areas such as:
poaching, killing, destroying, disturbing of any wildlife including in private lands
within the protected area; hunting, taking, collecting, or possessing of any wildlife,
or by-products derived therefrom, including in private lands within the protected
area without the necessary permit, authorization or exemption; cutting, gathering,
removing or collecting timber within the protected area including private lands
therein, without the necessary permit, authorization, certification of planted trees or
exemption such acts are done in accordance with the duly recognized practices of
the IPs/ICCs for subsistence purposes; using any fishing or harvesting gear and
practices or any of their variations that destroys coral reefs, seagrass beds or other
marine life and their associated habitats or terrestrial habitat as may be determined
by the DA or the DENR; dumping, throwing, using, or causing to be dumped into or
places in the protected area of any toxic chemical, noxious or poisonous substance or
nonbiodegradable material, untreated sewage or animal waste or products whether
in liquid, solid or gas state, including pesticides and other hazardous substances;
engaging in commercial or large-scale quarrying within the protected area; and
engaging in 'kaingin' or, any manner, causing forest fires inside the protected area.
(Sec. 18, RA 11038)
D. Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act (RA 9147)
RA 9147 considers killing and destroying wildlife species as unlawful except when:
it is done as part of the religious rituals of established tribal groups or indigenous
cultural communities; the wildlife is afflicted with an incurable communicable
disease; deemed necessary to put an end to the misery suffered by the wildlife; done
to prevent an imminent danger to the life or limb of a human being; and when the
wildlife is killed or destroyed after it has been used in authorized research or
experiments. (Sec. 27, RA 9147)

The Act also considers it illegal to: inflict injury which cripples and/or impairs the
reproductive system of wildlife species; introduction, reintroduction or restocking of
wildlife resources; trading of wildlife; collecting, hunting or possessing wildlife, their
by-products and derivatives; gathering or destroying of active nests, nest trees, host
plants and the like; transporting of wildlife; and effect any of the following acts in
critical habitat(s): (i) dumping of waste products detrimental to wildlife; (ii)
squatting or otherwise occupying any portion of the critical habitat; (iii) mineral
exploration and/or extraction; (iv) burning; (v) logging; and (vi) quarrying. (Sec. 27,
RA 9147)

E. Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 (RA 9275)

The following acts are prohibited under RA 9275: discharging, depositing or causing
to be deposited material of any kind directly or indirectly into the water bodies or
along the margins of any surface water, where, the same shall be liable to be washed
into such surface water, either by tide action or by storm, floods or otherwise, which
could cause water pollution or impede natural flow in the water body; discharging,
injecting or allowing to seep into the soil or sub-soil any substance in any form that
would pollute groundwater; disposal of potentially infectious medical waste into sea
water by vessels unless the health or safety of individuals on board the vessel is
threatened by a great and imminent peril; unauthorized transport or dumping into
sea waters of sewage sludge or solid waste as defined under Republic Act No.9003;
transport, dumping or discharge of prohibited chemicals, substances or pollutants
and operate facilities that discharge or allow to seep, willfully or through gross
negligence, prohibited chemicals, substances or pollutants listed under R. A. No.
6969 into water bodies or wherein the same shall be liable to be washed into such
surface, ground, coastal, and marine water; and Directly using booster pumps in the
distribution system or tampering with the water supply in such a way as to alter or
impair the water quality.(Sec. 27, RA 9275)

F. Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (RA 9003)

Prohibited acts under RA 9003 include: littering, throwing, dumping of waste

matters in public places, such as roads, sidewalks, canals, esteros or parks, and
establishment, or causing or permitting the same; open burning of solid waste; open
dumping, burying of biodegradable or non-biodegradable materials in flood prone
areas; establishment or operation of open dumps as enjoined in this Act, or closure of
said dumps in violation of Sec. 37; transport and dumplog in bulk of collected
domestic, industrial, commercial, and institutional wastes in areas other than centers
or facilities prescribe under this Act; construction or operation of landfills or any
waste disposal facility on any aquifer, groundwater reservoir, or watershed area and
or any portions thereof. (Sec. 48, RA 9003)