The Port Management Office of Misamis Oriental/Cagayan de Oro received a Plaque of Appreciation from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 10 during the opening ceremony for the DENR’s two-day annual Environmental Summit on 16 October 2019 at N Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City.
USec. Benny D. Antiporda, Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and LGU Concerns of DENR Central conferred the award to Port Manager Isidro V. Butaslac, Jr.
DENR-EMB commended the PMO MOC’s active participation in the World Water Day barangay-wide Clean-up Drive on 22 March 2019 in Barangay Macabalan. The twenty-two (22) PMO personnel who laboriously collected a variety of garbage from the drainage canal (“estero”) in their assigned area, had gathered an estimated 80 kilograms of wastes during the said clean-up drive.
(READ:https://ppapmocdo.wordpress.com/green-page/)
Plaques of Appreciation were also given to DENR’s partner industries and the academe.
Environmental Summit 2019
The annual summit drew delegates from more than fifteen (15) Local Government Units (LGUs) around the provinces of Northern Mindanao, government agencies, and academic institutions. It served as a venue for knowledge-sharing on Solid Waste Management (SWM) such as best practices/success stories, LGU projects/initiatives, new technologies, and updates on policies, rules, and regulations.
With this year’s theme, “Beat Air Pollution: Managing Solid Waste Towards a Pollution-Free Environment,” Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno remarked that environment protection is a shared responsibility; and plans of national agencies and LGUs must be harmonized towards a competitive, attractive, and livable Region. The Mayor thanked the environment agencies for the initiative of organizing the environmental summit. He added that this year’s summit may be focused on SWM, but there are more issues that are equally important which would be also tackled thereat.
DENR-10 OIC Regional Director Reynaldo S. Digamo also asked for the full cooperation of all for a synergistic action towards effective SWM not only in the region but also nationwide. He informed that since the onset of the implementation of RA 9003 “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000” eighteen years ago, the country still struggles to manage its garbage and waste. However, the DENR-10 is optimistic to its targets of closing the remaining 27 open and controlled dumpsites in Northern Mindanao and all LGUs will have their approved 10-year SWM plan by 2020.
The two-day Summit was packed with talks on various environment-related topics such as on EMB Policy on the Use of Waste Material as Alternative Fuel, Environmental Impact Assessment and Basic Requirements for projects requiring ECC, Policy, and Guidelines on Sewage Treatment and Management System, among others.
Various eco-friendly products made from recyclable materials by LGUs were also exhibited during the Summit which were for sale or for pre-order. —IMR Lam