ILOILO City – They are tasked to make sure that communities are following Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Members of the Solid Waste Enforcers and Educators Team–Environmental Monitoring Officers (SWEET-EnMOs) are under the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Recently, a team of SWEET-EnMOS from Provincial and Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENROs/CENROs) in Western Visayas attended a one-day training on their specific functions, like monitoring compliance of local government units and preparing comprehensive reports.
The SWEET-EnMOS are delegated to implement the Solid Waste Enforcers and Educators Program (SWEEP), formerly called Basura Patrol program.
Assigned at DENR field offices, the SWEET-EnMOS must monitor their respective areas of assignment.
Specifically, they must make sure that communities are complying with Section 48 of RA 9003, which prohibits littering, throwing, dumping of waste matters in public places or causing or permitting the same, open burning of solid waste, squatting in open dumps and landfills, open dumping, burying of biodegradable or non-biodegradable materials in flood-prone areas, and establishment or operation of open dumpsites.
The SWEET-EnMOS have submit their reports with geotagged photos and sketch map of the area they had monitored.
“We also need to upgrade and capacitate our field personnel. It is but right that we train them, more so that their function involves the monitoring and enforcement of the law,” said DENR Region 6 director Jim O Sampulna.
DENR secretary Roy Cimatu stressed that local governments are “duty-bound to comply with the existing law on solid waste management.”
“The law provides that the primary responsibility in the implementation of waste segregation and disposal at source is lodged with the LGUs,” he said. (With DENR Region 6/PN)
