ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

What is Environmental Law?

 A complex and interlocking body of statutes, common law,

treaties, conventions, regulations and policies
 Operate to regulate the interaction of humanity and the
rest of the biophysical or natural environment
 Purpose of reducing or minimizing the impacts of human
activity, both on the natural environment, for its own
sake, and on humanity itself
 Principles Influencing Environmental
Laws
 Environmentalism

 Ecology, conservation, stewardship, responsibility and

sustainability
Areas of Concern

 Air and water quality

 Global climate change
 Agriculture
 Biodiversity and Species protection
 Pesticides and hazardous chemicals
 Waste management and remediation of contaminated lands
 Management of public lands and natural resources
INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND
CONVENTIONS
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal

 The most comprehensive global environmental agreement on

hazardous and other wastes.

 Aims to protect human health and the environment against the

adverse effects of hazardous wastes:
 generation and management
 transboundary movements
 disposal
CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

 Resulted from the recognition that damage to biodiversity can only be

effectively dealt within a comprehensive manner (not dealing with
specific species or habitat)

 Three main objectives:

• Conservation of biodiversity;
• Sustainable use of its components; and
• Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from genetic
resources
CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE
OF ENDANGERED SPECIES (CITES)
 An international agreement between governments

 Aim to ensure that international trade of specimens of

wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival

 Widespread information dissemination about the

endangered status of many prominent species
KYOTO PROTOCOL

 Broke new ground by defining three innovative “flexibility

mechanisms” to lower the overall costs of achieving its emissions
targets

 Mechanisms enable Parties to access cost-effective opportunities to

reduce emissions or to remove carbon from the atmosphere in many
countries
• Emissions trading (carbon market)
• Clean development mechanism
• Joint implementation
UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON
CLIMATE CHANGE (UNFCCC)

 Consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope

with whatever temperature increases are inevitable

 Key points (objectives)

• To keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius
• The commitment to list developed country emission reduction targets
and mitigation actions by developing countries
• Mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry
PHILIPPINE ENVIRONMENTAL
LAWS
RA 9275- PHILIPPINE CLEAN WATER ACT OF 2004

 Aims to protect the country’s water bodies from pollution from land-
based sources (industries and commercial establishments, agriculture,
and community/household activities)

 It provides a comprehensive and integrated strategy to prevent and

minimize pollution through a multi-sectoral and participatory
approach involving all the stakeholders
RA 9275 PROHIBITED ACTS

 Discharging, depositing or causing to be deposited material of any

kind directly or indirectly into water bodies or along the margin of
any surface water
 Discharging regulated water pollutants without the valid required
discharge permit
 Refusal to allow entry, inspection and monitoring as well as access to
reports and records
 Disposal of potentially infectious medical wastes into seawater by
vessels
 Refusal or failure to submit reports and/or designate Pollution
Control Officer
RA 9175- CHAIN SAW ACT OF 2002
 An act regulating the ownership, possession, sale, importation and use
of chain saws, penalizing violations thereof and for other purposes

 Persons authorized to possess or use chain saw:

• Has a subsisting timber license agreement, production sharing
agreement, or similar agreements, or a private land timber permit;
• Is an orchard and fruit tree farmer;
• Is an industrial tree farmer;
• Is a licensed wood processor an the chain saw shall be used for the
cutting of timber that has been legally sold to said applicant;
• Shall use the chain saw for a legal purpose
RA 9003- ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2000
 Creation of the National Solid Waste Management Commission
(NSWMC), the National Ecology Center (NEC) and the Solid Waste
Management Board in every province, city, and municipality in the
country
 Formulation of the National Solid Waste Management Framework;10-
year solid waste management plans by local government units
consistent with the National Solid Waste Management Framework;
 Establishment of Materials Recovery Facility in every barangay or
cluster of barangays;
 Prohibition against the use of open dumps;
 Setting od guidelines/criteria for the establishment of controlled
dumps and sanitary landfills
RA 9003: ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2000
 Provision of rewards, incentives both fiscal and non-fiscal, financial
assistance, grants and the like to encourage LGUs and the general
public to undertake effective solid waste management;
 Mandatory segregation of solid waste to be conducted primarily at the
source such as household, institutional, industrial, commercial, and
agricultural sources;
 Setting of minimum requirements to ensure systematic collection and
transport of wastes and the proper protection of the health of
garbage collectors
RA 8749- PHILIPPINE CLEAN AIR ACT OF
1999
 The State shall promote and protect the global environment to attain
sustainable development while recognizing the primary responsibility
of local government units to deal with environmental problems

 The State recognizes that the responsibility of cleaning the habitat

and environment is primarily area based

 The State also recognizes the principle that “polluters must pay”.
MC 2016-008: COMPLIANCE TO SOURCE
EMISSION TEST

 Exempted from emission test:

Boiler <= 50 hp
Diesel Generator Set <= 300 kW
Sources <= 10 T per year of air pollutant

 Pollutants: Particulates, Nox, Sox, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, Lead, Volatile

Organic Compounds
RA 8485- ANIMAL WELFARE ACT OF 1998

 An act to protect and promote the welfare of all animals in the

Philippines by supervising and regulating the establishment and
operations of all facilities utilized for breeding, maintaining, keeping,
treating or training of all animals either as objects of trade or as
household pets
- pet animal shall include birds

 Any form of cruelty against animals shall be penalized

RA 7942- PHILIPPINE MINING ACT OF
1995
 All mineral resources in public or private lands within the territory
and exclusive economic zone of the Republic of the Philippines are
owned by the State

 It shall be the responsibility of the State to promote their rational

exploration, development, utilization and conservation through the
combined efforts of government and the private sector in order to
enhance national growth in a way that effectively safeguards the
environment and protect the rights of affected communities.
RA 6969-TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND HAZARDOUS
AND NUCLEAR WASTES CONTROL ACT OF 1990

 An act to control toxic substances and hazardous and nuclear wastes,

providing penalties for violations thereof, and for other purposes
 A policy of the State to regulate, restrict or prohibit the importation,
manufacture, processing, sale, distribution, use and disposal of
chemical substances and mixtures that present risk and/or injury to
health or the environment
 To prohibit the entry, even the transit, of hazardous and nuclear
wastes and their disposal into the Philippine territorial limits
CHEMICAL CONTROL ORDER

 Prohibits, limit, or regulate the use, manufacture, import,

export, transport, processing, storage, possession, and
wholesale of those priority chemicals that DENR
determined to be regulated, phased-out, or banned due to
the serious risks they pose to public health, workplace and
environment.

 Hg, Pb, CN, PCB, ODS, AS, Cd*, Vinyl Cl*, Benzene*,
Chromium*
RA 10176- ARBOR DAY ACT OF 2012

 An act to combat the loss of our natural resources and rejuvenate our
environment by undertaking nationwide tree planting activities and
providing effective measures for their maintenance and sustainability.

 It mandates all able-bodied citizens of the Philippines, who are at

least 12 years of age, shall be required to plant one tree each year.
ARBOR DAY ACT OF 2012
 The law also mandates all provinces, cities and municipalities to
revive, by appropriate proclamation of their local chief executives,
an Arbor Day at an appropriate fixed date every calendar year as shall
be deemed suitable according to the proper time and season for
planting trees in their respective provinces and their component
municipalities or cities concerned.

 Provided, that the designated Arbor Day shall be declared as a public

working holiday inn order to ensure the participation of the different
sectors of society and such declaration may be embodied in the
proclamation that the local chief executives are authorized to do
under this act.
KUMUSTA NAMAN?
HOW CAN WE EXPECT OUR COUNTRY TO BE A STEWARD OF
THE CREATOR WHEN WE CANNOT EVEN TAKE CARE OF OUR
ENVIRONMENT?
THANK YOU!