Loren decries lax implementation of toxic substances law

Senator Loren Legarda has called for a Senate investigation on the apparent laxity in implementing a law that bans the production, importation and use of toxic substances like endosulfan.

In filing Senate Resolution 486, Legarda lamented the discovery that the capsized MV Princess of the Stars had among its cargoes the pesticide endosulfan known to be a highly toxic environmental pollutant.

Legarda's resolution directed the Senate Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources to probe the implementation of Republic Act 6969, otherwise known as the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act.

The law was passed in 1990 regulating or banning the manufacture, importation and use of chemical substances.

Three years since RA 6969's passage, endosulfan was among those banned by the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) due to its acute and chronic effects to health and the environment.

After two years, the ban was lifted by the FPA and permission to use and manufacture endosulfan was issued for a period of two years to impede a dreaded disease that endangered the country's pineapple industry.

"There were allegations that the FPA was lax in monitoring the two-year grace period which led to the prevalent manufacture, distribution, use and importation by pineapple plantations," she said.

Giant food company Del Monte Philippines, to which the endosulfan aboard MV Princes of the Stars was consigned, had been using the substance in its pineapple plantations.

The presence of endosulfan on the sunken vessel halted retrieval operations for the bodies of those who perished, out of fear for the safety of the divers.

Legarda said that endosulfan should be banned in the country once and for all as it poses danger to humans and most living organisms.

"The Stockholm Convention has already initiated actions toward the inclusion of endosulfan as a persistent organic pollutant considering that the chemical is a long-ranging transboundary air pollutant and recognized as a persistent toxic substance by the United Nations Environmental Program," she said.

The senator pushed for the effective implementation of the provisions of RA 6969, citing Congress' duty to see to it that the law is not set aside for whatever reason.