Environment advocates seek changes to EIS

Friday, April 27, 2012

ENVIRONMENTAL advocates alarmed over the damage caused by corporations on the environment are proposing amendments on the environment impact system.

The advocates wanted amendments on Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR Administrative Order (AO 2003-30 to ensure stricter scrutiny before these so-called development projects will be issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC.

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The final draft of the proposed amendments was presented Friday by environmental lawyers from the Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (Saligan at a public forum organized by the Interface Development Interventions and the Watershed Management Coordinating Council.

«The proposed amendments are designed to make AO 2003-30 relevant with the current changes in laws such as disaster risk reduction, climate change and environmental ordinances,» Idis executive director Lia Jasmin Esquillo said.

«These amendments will effectively restore the DAO back to its previous form when it highlighted the precautionary principle of the environment impact system law by ensuring mandatory consultations, social acceptability and other environmental safeguards prior to approval of the project,» Esquillo said.

Members of the Go Organic Mindanao (GOM movement, who are at the forefront of an anti-genetically modified organisms (GMO campaign , are hopeful that the amendments can be passed in time to prevent more multinational agricultural corporations from experimenting on Mindanao crops.

«In the future, proposals on field trials of potentially dangerous GMO crops will have to undergo the strict scrutiny of an EIS assessment before it can be released from laboratory containment,» GOM coordinator Tina Delima said.

Under Philippine law, all government and corporate companies are required to prepare an environmental impact assessment for any environmentally critical project or any activity situated within environmentally critical areas to determine the project's impact on the quality of the environment.

If passed, the proposed amendments will also cover future biotechnology projects which will be implemented in various sites in the country.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on April 28, 2012.

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