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Heaps of garbage remain outside a landfill in Barangay San Isidro in Rodriguez, Rizal. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File

 

Piles of garbage remain outside a landfill in Barangay San Isidro in Rodriguez, Rizal. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

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DENR supports amendments to RA 9003; cites need for tech updates and better enforcement

Raphael Bosano

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176951160999620200422-san-isidro-md-8.jpg" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Heaps of garbage remain outside a landfill in Barangay San Isidro in Rodriguez, Rizal. <em>Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has acknowledged the need to revisit and amend Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, 25 years after it was signed into law.</p><p>In a press conference on Tuesday, Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the agency is already in talks with former President and now Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Arroyo, who has filed a bill seeking to amend the law she herself signed two decades ago.</p><p>Lotilla said one of the proposed changes includes the use of technology “that would allow waste-to-energy.”</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/9/18/what-to-do-with-your-e-waste-store-first-and-contact-bgy-denr-says-1954">What to do with your e-waste? Store first and contact brgy, DENR says</a></div><p>Under the current law, incineration of solid waste is prohibited. However, newer technologies have since emerged that are more compliant with modern environmental and emissions standards.</p><p>“Over the decades, one interpretation has been that our present law, Clean Air Act as well as the Solid Waste Management Act, prohibit incineration or waste energy alternatives. But what I think the Supreme Court has been clear here, that what it prohibits is our polluting incineration,” he said.</p><div> </div><div><strong>CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION</strong></div><p>Lotilla said what also needs close review is how the law has been implemented over the years—particularly by local government units (LGUs). Under RA 9003, LGUs are required to take the lead in solid waste management and develop their own 10-year solid waste management plans. Implementation, he admitted, has been “uneven.”</p><p>“Urbanization continues to generate pressure on our waste systems. And incidents like the one that took place in Cebu in the Cebu landfill tragedy remind us of the cost of weak compliance. These realities reinforce that RA 9003 is as relevant today as it was in 2001.”</p><p>While around 92 percent, or 1,515 of the 1,942 LGUs nationwide, have submitted their plans, only a little over 50 percent of the waste generated actually ends up in sanitary landfills.</p><div><a href="http://What to do with your e-waste? Store first and contact brgy, DENR says">&#x27;Mindset change,&#x27; discipline needed for Filipinos to manage solid waste, says DOST</a></div><p>Environment officials say there should ideally be one materials recovery facility (MRF) in every barangay—more than 42,000 in total. But there are currently only over 20,000 MRFs nationwide, leaving many barangays without proper coverage.</p><p>“There are barangays that have geographical limitations. How do you do that for areas which are highly built up,” Lotilla said.</p><p>Environment Assistant Secretary Jaqueline Caancan said another major challenge is that solid waste management often does not rank high in the priority list of many LGUs.</p><p>Apart from reviewing and introducing possible amendments to RA 9003, the DENR has also directed its regional offices to conduct comprehensive inspections of landfills across the country. This comes after the collapse of a landfill in Binaliw, Cebu City, which killed more than 30 people.</p><div> </div><div><strong>WASTE WORKERS&#x27; WELFARE</strong></div><p>While many people are hesitant to sort through their own garbage, often because it was improperly segregated to begin with, the burden falls on waste workers, many of whom belong to the informal sector.</p><p>Lotilla said there are over 100,000 informal waste workers nationwide who are involved in waste processing, and whose rights and welfare must also be protected.</p><p>“They don&#x27;t even get minimum wage. They don&#x27;t have insurance. They don&#x27;t have many of the benefits of the formal sector. So formalizing the waste workers and waste activities is also an important element here. Again, we need to work closely with the local government units.”</p><p>Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna said the DENR is willing and ready to take part in committee deliberations on the proposed amendments, where provisions for the welfare of waste workers may be integrated.</p><p>The agency said its assessment of the law is already underway, with initial results expected by the end of the first quarter.</p>

<p>The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has acknowledged the need to revisit and amend Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, 25 years after it was signed into law.</p>

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has acknowledged the need to revisit and amend Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, 25 years after it was signed into law.

DENR backs changes to solid waste law to allow incineration

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DENR backs changes to solid waste law to allow incineration

Raphael Bosano,

ABS-CBN News

Published January 27, 2026 07:07 PM PHT

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Updated January 27, 2026 07:42 PM PHT

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Solid Waste Management

Wastes

Department of Environment and Natural Resources

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