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'Dagat ng basura' in Parañaque also exposes government failure, Oceana says
Philippines
National
'Dagat ng basura' in Parañaque also exposes government failure, Oceana says
'Dagat ng basura' in Parañaque also exposes government failure, Oceana says
By Jel Santos
Published Aug 13, 2026 02:48 pm
At A Glance
- * Oceana said the garbage choking the Redemptorist Water Channel in Parañaque exposes not only public indiscipline but also systemic and government failures in addressing plastic pollution.
- * The group criticized the government's waste-to-energy push, warning that the country cannot process or burn its way out of the crisis while single-use plastics continue to flood the market.
- * Oceana called for the full implementation of RA 9003, a ban on non-essential single-use plastics, and the expansion of reuse and refill systems.
(MARK BALMORES/MB FILE PHOTO)
The garbage choking the Redemptorist Water Channel in Parañaque reflects not only public indiscipline but also a failed system and the government’s failure to address the root of the country’s plastic pollution crisis, marine conservation group Oceana said.
Oceana Vice President Von Hernandez criticized the government for promoting waste-to-energy as a solution while allegedly overlooking the continued production of single-use plastics by major corporations.
“While Malacañang in its latest pronouncement fixates on ‘waste-to-energy’ as a silver bullet and scolds the public for littering, it is willfully ignoring the root of this catastrophe: the relentless, unchecked flood of single-use plastics—sachets, styrofoam, and plastic bags—being pumped into our economy by major corporations,” he said in a statement.
“You cannot burn, process, or manage your way out of a crisis when the tap is gushing at full force,” he added.
Oceana rejected what it described as the government’s tendency to blame consumers whenever the country’s garbage problem resurfaces while failing to hold plastic producers accountable.
Hernandez cited Republic Act (RA) No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which provides measures for reducing waste at its source and prohibiting non-environmentally acceptable products.
“We have a 25-year-old law—Republic Act 9003—that already provides a clear roadmap: reduce plastic at the source and ban non-environmentally acceptable products,” he said.
“Yet the National Solid Waste Management Commission has sat on its hands, refusing to implement the ban, while the DENR now champions incineration disguised as ‘waste-to-energy,’” he added.
Likewise, the group raised concerns over the possible environmental and financial consequences of waste-to-energy facilities.
“We are choking on 163 million sachets a day, and the official response is to build more incinerators to process what we can’t recycle,” Hernandez pointed out.
“This is not a solution—it is a subsidy for polluters, a source of toxic air pollution, and a debt trap for local governments,” he added.
Oceana called on the government to fully implement RA 9003, prohibit non-essential single-use plastics, and expand reuse and refill systems.
As such, the group urged authorities to stop placing the blame solely on consumers for plastic pollution and instead address the amount of plastic entering the market.
“We need to switch off the tap. There is simply too much plastic in the system to manage in a ‘safe’ or ‘sustainable’ manner,” Hernandez said.
“The only viable path is to stop producing it in the first place,” he went on.