Cebu City fails to comply with envt’l requirement of Carbon, Pasil markets

Vendors display vegetables at the Carbon Market in this 2016 photo. | CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government may be paying up to P10,000 per day fine for failing to comply with environmental regulations in the Pasil and Carbon Public Market within the deadline on July 8.

The Environment Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) discovered in August 2018 that the city lacked discharge permit of water wastes, had no hazardous wastes generator’s I.D. for busted fluorescent lamps (BFLs), and lacked a pollution control officer (PCO).

These are all necessary permits in running a public fish market that has potential to pollute the environment through its generated wastes.

In a response by former Market Authority Officer, Lawyer Winifredo Orcullo, to EMB-7, he assured that the city would comply with the necessary permits by July 8, 2019 or else the city would face a fine of P10,000 per day if the regulations were not complied with.

Ten days after the deadline of EMB-7, the city government has complied with most permits except for the waste water treatment in the public markets necessary to get a Discharge Permit.

As of July 18, the city is expected to pay P100,000 in fine for its non-compliance of a proper waste water treatment in the Pasil and Carbon Public Markets.

Lawyer Rey Gealon, city legal officer, has asked the EMB-7 to give more time for the city government to comply with the environmental regulations.

“The City of Cebu under its new administration is committed to the achievement of the laudable purposes and mandate of the Environment Management Bureau and intends to address the matters raised in the said Notice of Violation,” said Gealon in a letter to the EMB-7. 

Gealon said the city would conduct a technical conference with the city’s new officer to apprise the officers of the facts and issues and enable the city to devise a comprehensive action plan to rehabilitate the city’s markets in accordance with this administration’s development framework.

He assured that Mayor Edgardo Labella is taking environmental regulations seriously and will resolve the issues as soon as possible./dbs