Raps poised vs firm for allegedly dumping toxic waste

The Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is poised to issue a closure order against a chemical treatment facility allegedly involved in the dumping of toxic waste in an irrigation canal in Marilao, Bulacan last month.

This, as the PAB also endorsed the filing of criminal charges against a truck driver and his helper, two contractors and a landowner before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for violating Republic Act 9275, or the Clean Water Act of 2004.

But the PAB has yet to determine the fines to be imposed on the respondents pending further hearings on the matter.

Under the law, violators face a jail term of six to 10 years and fines ranging from at least P500,000 to as much as P3 million per day.

In its four-page order, the PAB directed CFS Corp. based in Valenzuela City to explain in five days why it should not be held responsible for the illegal dumping of 20 drums of chemical substances in an agricultural area in Barangay Prenza II, Marilao town last Nov. 28.

CFS Corp. is involved in the treatment of chemical waste such as used oil and paint sludge from factories.

Lormelyn Claudio, Region 3 director of the Environmental Management Bureau, earlier described the toxic waste dumped in the irrigation canal as mixed used oil with "volatile organic compounds." — Katherine Adraneda