Bohol bids for ISO accreditation on environment management system

MAMBAJAO, CAMIGUIN, Philippines  - Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto and Vice Governor Concepcion Lim have joined hands in the provincial government's bid to regain International Standard Organization (ISO) 14001 accreditation of its environmental management system.

Part of this effort was the conduct of a team building activity at the island-province of Camiguin among personnel of the Capitol's Social Economic and Environmental management (SEEM) office and other departments.

Liza Quirog, head of the SEEM office, led the team in the activity, which she described as "enjoy, relax and learn" (ERL) in a place that was deemed to have the conducive atmosphere for the purpose.

Quirog, in one of the sessions, told the participants that EMS, if implemented properly, could serve as a valuable tool to help the provincial office improve its environmental performance, increase the use of pollution prevention, and improve compliance toward ISO 14001 accreditation.

EMS consultant Luther Bersales, also the resource person during the awareness seminar held earlier in Bohol, said that the aim of EMS certification were resource conservation, pollution prevention, compliance with applicable legal requirements, continual improvement and sustainable development.

The EMS certification is one step towards ISO 14001 accreditation, which the Bohol provincial government had achieved in 2004, making the province the first LGU so far to achieve such.

The provincial government however was unable to sustain its status as an EMS-certified LGU, prompting Chatto to move now to regain such achievement.

Chatto believed that "ISO 14001 is essentially a system designed to help any organization meet its environmental obligations and reduce the impact of their operations on the environment."

The ISO 14001 standard requires that a local government organization "puts in place and implement a series of practices and procedures that, when taken together, result in an environmental management system."  (FREEMAN)