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MAY 31, 2013

NR # 3120

Environment and Sanitary Engineering Law


Newly-elected Congressman Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District, Cagayan de Oro City) has expressed optimism that the measure creating the proposed environment and sanitary engineering law would get the nod in the 16th Congress. Rodriguez, who introduced the bill in the 15th Congress, vowed to push for the passage of the measure which will enable the engineers to be more effective in dealing with todays worsening environmental and sanitation problems. There is a need to re-assess the existing sanitary engineering law in order to identify and adopt measures to carry out more efficient pollution abatement techniques to preserve the environment and to protect public health, Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said the scope and complexities of pollution have severely increased and the need for environmental preservation and protection has to be broadened. The rapid deterioration of the environment as a result of unplanned and often unrestrained waste disposal, has affected public safety and health. Industrialization and modernization had likewise produced substances that are now public health concern, Rodriguez said. In the early years of the sanitary engineering profession, Rodriguez said the practice had been fundamentally in sanitation, water supply, sanitary and storm sewerage systems, and general pollution control and industrial hygiene. There is a need to address the domestic and industrial waste water treatment; stream, river, sanitation and water pollution control; atmospheric pollution control, both indoor and outdoor environment; solid waste management and disposal; and radioactive, toxic and hazardous material waste disposal, Rodriguez said. Under the bill, the Board of Environmental and Sanitary Engineering shall be established and composed of a chairman and three members who shall be appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), from a list of five nominees endorsed by the duly accredited professional organization of the environmental and sanitary engineering in the country. Members of the Board shall receive a monthly compensation in accordance with the salaries and wages stipulated under the PRC law, provided, that the Chairman of the Regulatory Board shall receive a monthly compensation of 10 percent more. The Board shall be under the administrative supervision of the commission. All records of the Board, including examination papers, minutes of deliberations, records of administrative cases and investigations results shall be for control and disposition of the commission. Any person who violates any provision of the proposed act and its rules and regulations, shall be penalized by a fine of not less than P50,000 nor more than P500,000, or imprisonment of not less than nine months nor more than five years, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court. (30)
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