THREE persons were convicted by the court for dumping liquid waste into a canal in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City.

Found guilty of violating Republic Act 9275 also known as the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 were Allan Lumanog, Ariel Olaje and Arwin Reyes.

Judge Victoriano Cabanos sentenced the three wastewater dumpers from six years to 10 years imprisonment.

Environment Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje hailed the court’s decision saying “this comes at a time when the government is aggressively pushing for partnerships with the private sector and local governments in cleaning our waterways, and shows how serious we are in going after violators of pollution laws.”

Lumanog, Olaje and Reyes were caught by officials of Barangay Bagong Silang in Caloocan City while emptying the contents of 46 plastic containers, which were found to be liquid waste containing high concentrations of copper and zinc by the technical staff of EMB-NCR.         

Such compounds are classified as hazardous wastes under DENR Administrative Order 2004-36, which strengthen the implementation of RA 6969, or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990.

The barangay officials acted on residents’ complaints of a foul smell in their area and traced the smell to containers on board a parked passenger jeepney. This led them to a nearby house, which has an open canal that eventually drained to a nearby creek.  Joel dela Torre