SEVERAL business groups have asked the government to extend the grace period to comply with the Water Quality Guidelines and General Effluent Standards of 2016 by at least around 1.5 years, if not for three years, amid the mobility restrictions due to the pandemic.
In a statement on Wednesday, foreign and local private sector groups said the industry understood that the compliance period for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Department Administrative Order (DAO) 2016-18 is until December 31, 2022.
“This understanding was based on the very explicit wording contained in EMB [Environmental Management Bureau] Memorandum Circular [MC] No. 2019-001 that stated the same so long as a Compliance Action Plan was approved by the concerned EMB Regional Office not later than by December 31, 2019,” the joint statement reads.
However, the EMB MC 2021-01, which sought to clarify the implementation of DAO 2016-08, specifies a June 18, 2021 deadline, the business groups said.
With this, the business groups called on Congress to legislate, through Bayanihan 3, a moratorium on the immediate lifting of the said grace period.
“We thus hope that Congress will see the wisdom in adopting this policy provision in Bayanihan 3 to at least retain the original grace period of DAO 2016-08 until December 31, 2022,” the private sector representatives said.
“However, we also hope that Congress may consider extending the grace period three years from 18 June 2021, for regulatory relief until economic recovery has been achieved or when the quarantine is lifted, whichever is longer,” they added.
Several companies have already prepared for the compliance on a timeline that the grace period will be lifted by January 1, 2023 based on the approved compliance actions, they said.
5 months not enough
THE business groups said that the five-month adjustment period covering February to June is not enough time to comply with the new standards.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has in fact made it extremely difficult to stick to the timelines in the original Compliance Action Plans submitted to and approved by EMB due to movement restrictions and imposition of minimum public health standards in workplaces,” the statement reads. “Due to these delays, it in fact provides a basis to ask for an even longer grace period beyond December 2022.”
The private sector organizations lamented that the need to speed up the retrofitting of wastewater infrastructures poses financial risks as the sector is still reeling from the impact of the pandemic.
“The prospect of Notices of Violations, fines and penalties due to non-compliance adds even more salt to the economic injury discussed in the previous point,” the groups said. “Until the new standards are approved, DENR should waive the penalties based on the old standards.”
The statement was signed by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Australian-New Zealand Commerce of the Philippines, Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry of the Philippines, Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. and Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc.
“We fully support the objectives of DAO 2016-08 to ensure the sustainability and quality of our water bodies and waterways, but this needs to be balanced with the realities we face during the Covid pandemic. Our proposal is an attempt to strike that balance,” the statement concluded.
Image courtesy of Contributed photo
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