Emotional Loren blasts poor implementation of environmental laws

Senator Loren Legarda turned emotional during a Senate hearing on Monday after learning that some of the environmental laws she authored are being implemented poorly.

Legarda, who chairs the Senate environment committee that conducted the hearing, said among the laws that are not being implemented properly are the Clean Air Act and the Solid Waste Management Law.

“We are failing in our job… I am failing in my job because I am not making all my laws implemented that’s why I am angry,” she told the resource persons at the hearing on plastic bag recycling. “All of us are failing as mothers, as caregivers, as leaders.”

She singled out the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) after its commissioner, Crispian Lao, claimed the country has one of the highest standard on environmental protection. She said the standards are not being observed properly on the ground.

“We have high standards on paper, on policy, but is it being implemented? No, it is not being implemented by agencies of government. Oh my god! We don’t follow our laws,” Legarda said.

Legarda said that the government officials should not be contented in saying that they have high standards because it is not being executed on the ground.

“All my grand and great laws will amount to nothing if you guys in government and NGO (non-government organizations) and every Filipino will not follow it. Then, I would have failed and that is so sad,” she said before breaking down.

“I don’t know why I became emotional,” she said. “I wish I could in my lifetime clean Manila Bay. I wish I could clean Laguna de Bay. I wish could implement solid waste management 100 percent.”

Legarda said she is “crying for mother nature,” noting that people “are selfish, stubborn, and greedy.”

Source: Gma Network