LOCAL LAWS

• Presidential Decree No. 1151 (06 June 1977): Goal: advance both the productive and harmonious relationship of nature and the Filipino people of today and the future. This mandates an intensive and integrated national environmental protection program mainly by requiring environmental impact assessments and statements.
• Presidential Decree No. 1586 (11 June 1978): PEISS is the framework for all environmental impact assessment activities nationwide. As per the Philippine Environmental Policy (PD 1151), the PEISS classifies every development project as either environmentally critical or environmentally non-critical. Projects deemed as potential source of any form of significant impact to the environment are regarded as environmentally critical and are therefore required to secure an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).
• Republic Act No. 7611: The Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) is "a comprehensive framework for the sustainable development of Palawan." All projects of government agencies, from planning to implementation, are coordinated and aligned to this framework with the goal to establish an "Environmentally Critical Areas Network" or ECAN. It is a graded system of protective control over all terrestrial and marine natural resources, and tribal ancestral lands in Palawan. The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) was created for this policy.
• Presidential Decree No. 856 (23 December 1975): sets the sanitary standards for drinking water, food and other business establishments, industrial hygiene, schools, health services, markets, slaughterhouses, transport vehicles, terminals and other service stations, and lodging areas and infrastructures among many others. It regulates nuisances - anything that injures health, endangers life, offends senses, or produces discomfort to the community - and activities concerning dead persons, their funeral, and remains. It regulates other forms of pollution not covered in the above-mentioned places like that caused by certain substances, radiation, noise, and biological pollutants among others. It sets the requirements for the collection of sewage, operation of sewerage works and sewage treatment plants, construction of septic tanks, and disposal of septic tank effluents (Chapter XVII).
• Presidential Decree No. 979 (18 August 1976): Declared unlawful all dumping of wastes and other hazardous matter into the ocean and inland waters of the Philippines unless due to unavoidable accidents or otherwise prescribed by the National Pollution Control Commission or the Philippine Coast Guard.
• Presidential Decree No. 1067 (31 December 1976): The Water Code of the Philippines governs the ownership, allocation, utilization, control, conservation, and the overall administration of all waters and water resources in the country through the National Water Resources Board. All citizens including government agencies must acquire a water permit (the written evidence of having a water right) in order to be able to appropriate and use water. Any activities affecting water resources shall likewise acquire a permit first.
• The water permit specifies among others the maximum amount and rate as well as the schedule of water diversion or withdrawal, location of wells, place of use, and purpose/s of water use
• The streambank easement zones of three (3) meters for urban areas, twenty (20) meters for agricultural areas, and forty (40) meters for forest areas along the entire length of the rivers and streams are also mandated under Article 51 of this Code.
• Pangasinan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Cagayan, and Tarlac are the country's most at-risk provinces based on their aggregated damage ratio (ADR), according to an analysis published The Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI).
• 17 Philippine provinces included in the list of top 100 most at-risk areas in terms of average damage ratio: Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Eastern Samar, Zambales, Aurora, Northern Samar, Cagayan, Surigao del Sur, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Sulu, Leyte, Pampanga, Samar and Southern Leyte.
• XDI said that the average damage ratio provides insight into areas that may have fewer properties but may be subjected to greater or more widespread damage. It found the Philippines to have the highest disaster risk among 193 countries in 2022 (Source: Philippine Star, 2023).

  
• Affected families lost P7,500 a month due to the Mindoro oil spill. 93% of residents in four barangays in Calapan City and 86.5% of residents in two barangays in Pola town said their income was insufficient.
• The Local Government Code of the Philippines states under PENAL PROVISIONS, SECTION 511. Posting and Publication of Ordinances with Penal Sanctions. – (a) ordinances with penal sanctions shall be posted at prominent places in the provincial capitol, city, municipal or Barangay hall, as the case may be, for a minimum period of three (3) consecutive weeks.
• Climate Risk Index of 2019 analyses the extent to which countries have been affected by weather-related losses between 1998-2017 (GermanWatch, 2019). However, it should be noted that the CRI may not provide an accurate presentation of the future risk due to the fact that it measures data of past events (which may not always be available depending on the country). Thus, for example in the case of Philippines, low CRI score does not necessarily indicate low climate risk in the future.

  
• INFORM risk index is a global tool which measures the risk of humanitarian crises and disasters based on 50 indicators assessing hazards, vulnerability and capacity (resources available to mitigate the impact) (INFORM, 2019)