The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued an administrative order for the establishment of the Environmental Law Enforcement and Protection Service (ELEPS) as an interim service pending the passage of a bill creating the Environmental Protection and Enforcement Bureau (EPEB).
ELEPS has enforcement powers and can order the stoppage of ongoing violations, arrest, management of confiscated items, investigation and preparation for prosecution of environmental criminals until execution of decisions by the court.
“Our Department has many laws to implement but we are lacking when it comes to enforcement. While we are waiting for the passage of EPEB, Secretary (Roy Cimatu) has allowed to craft this order to install an enforcement service for the effective protection of our forests and other natural resources,” said DENR Undersecretary Jonas Leones.
ELEPS will cover all environmental laws involving enforcement or violations of environmental and natural resources laws, rules and regulations covering terrestrial, coastal, marine, aquatic resources and aerial, among others.
ELEPS will promote effective and strong enforcement of environmental laws to establish coordinative mechanisms and utilize science and technology to develop highly competent manpower that will encompass existing enforcement units in the agency.
In a separate statement, the DENR said dredging activities in one of the three priority sandbars along the Cagayan River will be completed next month as 253,743 cubic meters (cu. m.) or 74 percent of 44,304 cu. m. that make up the 11.4-hectare sandbar in Lal-lo is already finished.
“We are pressing on to stay on track despite the roadblocks brought about by the onset of the rainy season and the logistical hurdles posed by the coronavirus pandemic. But we are pushing forward to finish clearing the sandbar in Lal-lo, Cagayan by the second or third week of July,” DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu said in a statement.
Cimatu said DENR will more than double the current dredging capacity at Lal-lo sandbar from 308 cu. m. per hour to 713 cubic meters at a six-hours-a-day dredging schedule to dredge the remaining 90,558 cu. m.
