‘Alvarez made gross mathematical miscalculations on imports of CFCs’

The former head of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said yesterday Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez got his mathematics wrong in the controversy surrounding the importation last year of some P100 million worth of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

"The secretary made gross mathematical miscalculations," said former EMB chief Peter Anthony Abaya, who faces administrative charges for allegedly granting permits to eight new industry players to import the substances. Executives of the eight companies also face charges.

Alvarez said Abaya, who was EMB chief under former Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Antonio Cerilles, approved the issuance of permits last year to the eight companies for the importation of 200 metric tons each of the refrigerant R-12 dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12), which small and medium enterprises use in servicing old refrigerators and car airconditioners.

Alvarez said the entry of the banned chemicals into the country violated the 1997 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which the Philippines signed along with other countries on March 21, 1992.

He said that under DENR Administrative Order No. 2000-18 or the chemical control order for ozone-depleting substances (ODS), the DENR established a phaseout schedule for CFC imports, with gradual reduction each year from 1999 to 2010.

He said the government had been on schedule since 1993 when the protocol took effect in the country, with ODS consumption dropping from 4,295.82 metric tons in 1998 to 2,093.85 metric tons in 1999.

Alvarez said that based on the computations of his experts, deducting the 75 percent allowance from the 1996 level of 3,177.38 metric tons would show that actual imports would only account for 25 percent of the level or 794.345 metric tons.

The law mandates an 80 percent reduction last year. Imports for the year, however, exceeded the allowable level of 2,541.904 metric tons by 367.12 metric tons, to 2,909.03 metric tons, he said.

But Abaya, who is on leave, disputed the charges. He said that under the new chemical control order which Cerilles issued on Feb. 23 last year, the importation of CFC-12 would only be absolutely banned beginning Jan. 1, 2011 and not Jan. 1, 1999 as Alvarez claimed.