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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DENR needs more funds to address medical waste issue, says Garin

DENR needs more funds to address medical waste issue, says Garin

Published Sep 29, 2022 11:25 am

Additional budget should be allocated to address the Covid-19 medical waste conundrum, Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin said.

Facemasks (stock photo)

Specifically, Garin wants more funds funneled to the infectious healthcare waste program of the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (EMB-DENR).

"While Covid-19 cases in the country have started to decline, virus-contaminated healthcare wastes generated by the situation have continuously become a challenge and addressing the issue of proper healthcare waste disposal is still of paramount concern,” Garin said in a recent statement.

Under the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the EMB-DENR’s Environmental Regulations and Pollution Control Program will receive P1.22 billion. This is P1.53 billion or 55.7 percent less than its 2022 allocation of P2.75 billion.

Garin, a doctor and former Department of Health (DOH) secretary, thinks that the cuts made to the EMB-DENR’s programs were untimely as the country is still in the middle of a pandemic and thus, still generating large amounts of infectious medical waste.

In her statement, she cited DENR data which bared that in 2021 alone, 634,687.3 metric tons (MTs) of medical waste was generated, or a rate of 52,890 MTs a month. She says this is a 500 percent increase from pre-pandemic figures.

“LGUs have been told to store these medical waste, however, ang tagal na sa storage, may ilang LGUs ang hindi agad nakakapagtapon ng kanilang medical waste sa mga sanitary landfill dahil walang kumukuha (they stay in storage for so long. Some LGUs can’t dispose of their medical waste right away in sanitary landfills because no one is accepting it.. We are asking the DENR to look into this as the consequences of improper handling and disposal of medical waste are serious,” Garin said.

The 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which was based on the NEP, was approved on its third reading on Wednesday night, Sept. 28.

It is now up to the small committee to insert the individual House members' proposed amendments to the GAB before it is transmitted to the Senate.

READ: https://mb.com.ph/2022/09/28/proposed-p5-268-t-national-budget-for-2023-hurdles-house/

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