REVISITING THE ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM IN THE SLUM AREAS OFMANILA

The global impact of solid waste is growing fasterthan the rate of urbanization, a threat to humanitys survival, a crime against the environment.In Manila, Philippines, estuaries are the tributaries of waterways flowing to Manila Bay.This study evaluated the degree of commission of Ecological Solid Waste Management(ESWM)as an environmental crime among theinformal settlers of the major estuaries of Manila.Italso investigatedthe causes of waste crime commission among the respondents.Using descriptive evaluative research and a purposive sampling technique,480 served as respondents of the study.For the treatment and analysis of data, percentage method, four point likert scale and Pearson Product Moment of Coefficient Correlation r were utilized.Results showed thatcommunity residents are less aware of their violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Law as an environmental crime and non-participation of the waste management program as to waste disposal.The environmental officers moderately aware on the non-strict implementation of waste management programsamong estuary residents.It showed the very great extent on the commission ESWM law. Meanwhile, there is a significant relationship on the perception of the respondent as to information campaign of the government and values orientation. Values orientation explained highly significant amount of variance on the commission of ESWM law. The results indicated the importance of understanding the community concerns, sustainable solid waste management program, awareness of environmental crimes, enforcement and prosecution of environmental laws and willingness towards involvement critical for prevention and informing in solid waste waste management program, awareness of environmental crimes, enforcement and prosecution of environmental laws and willingness towards involvement in solid waste management improvement initiatives are critical for prevention and informing interventions.

The global impact of solid waste is growing fasterthan the rate of urbanization, a threat to humanity's survival, a crime against the environment.In Manila, Philippines, estuaries are the tributaries of waterways flowing to Manila Bay.This study evaluated the degree of commission of Ecological Solid Waste Management(ESWM)as an environmental crime among theinformal settlers of the major estuaries of Manila.Italso investigatedthe causes of waste crime commission among the respondents.Using descriptive evaluative research and a purposive sampling technique,480 served as respondents of the study.For the treatment and analysis of data, percentage method, four point likert scale and Pearson Product Moment of Coefficient Correlation r were utilized.Results showed thatcommunity residents are "less aware" of their violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Law as an environmental crime and non-participation of the waste management program as to waste disposal.The environmental officers "moderately aware" on the non-strict implementation of waste management programsamong estuary residents.It showed the "very great extent" on the commission ESWM law. Meanwhile, there is a significant relationship on the perception of the respondent as to information campaign of the government and values orientation. Values orientation explained highly significant amount of variance on the commission of ESWM law. The results indicated the importance of understanding the community concerns, sustainable solid waste management program, awareness of environmental crimes, enforcement and prosecution of environmental laws and willingness towards involvement critical for prevention and informing in solid waste waste management program, awareness of environmental crimes, enforcement and prosecution of environmental laws and willingness towards involvement in solid waste management improvement initiatives are critical for prevention and informing interventions. Member-countries to the United Nations are signatories to numerous international treaties, agreements and accords seeking to set global standards in the enforcement of environmental laws. However, member-countries focused on promoting environmental compliance but, while compliance are essential, law enforcement agencies requires advance knowledge of the best opportunities and concrete stages at which authorities might detect and prevent waste crime commission for environmental prosecution. The challenges in enforcement and regulation in turned, created more criminal opportunities for waste crime. But despite the global acknowledgment of the prevalence of commission of waste crime, it is unfortunate that there are only a few who has been penalized and prosecuted the Pilippines, there are 107 million people generating an average waste of more than 50.8 million tons in 2017 and expected to increase 70% at the end of the decade, consequently increasing the need of solid waste management and facilities and at the same time, enforcement of environmental laws (M. Macawile and G. Su, 2009 Ironically, with this environmental catastrophe, not much data and statistics are provided by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in their annual reports for the succeeding years that pertain to the problems of the waste sector, on the degree of environmental crisis, on the extentof the implementation of the solid waste management of every local government units, on their initiatives on waste management, information for awareness, enforcement of environmental laws and prosecution of transgressors.
Background of the Study:-Estuaries in Manila, Philippines are the tributaries of waterways flowing to the Pasig River and going to Manila Bay. The hub of human settlement and their solid waste is flushed into these bodies of water. It is heavily populated characterized by substandard housing and squalor, unsanitary conditions as the estuary itself serves a dumping point of all their waste including fecal waste, a refuge for marginal activities including vice and drug abuse and a likely source of many epidemics that ravaged the urban areas. This study focused in investigating the degree ofawareness in the commission of the ecological solid waste management as an environmental crime and the seriousness of the causes of waste crime commission as perceived by the respondents in the slum areas in Manila. It was conducted on the select four (4) major estuaries in Manila, Estero de San Miguel (ESM) in Sampaloc, Estero de Binondo (EDB) in Binondo, Estero de Magdalene (EDM) in Tondo and Estero de la Reina (EDR) in Binondo and San Nicolas.

Research Problem:-
The study attempted to formulate initiatives and strategies for prevention and intervention of the commission of waste crime. Specifically, this research sought answers to the following sub-problems: 1. How do the community residents, barangay officials and environmental officers evaluate the degree of commission of the ecological solid waste management as an environmental crime in terms of;  (4) aforementioned variables? 4. What initiatives and strategies may be formulated for prevention and intervention of the commission of waste crime? 5. How suitable, feasible and acceptable the formulated initiatives and strategies for prevention and intervention of the commission of waste crime?
Theoretical Framework:-This environmental crime paper is anchored on "Situational Crime Prevention Theory" as to risk of waste crime detection and prosecution. "Situational Crime Prevention Theory" assumes that situational factors influence the criminal's impression about benefits, therefore having an impact on the criminal's rational choice and a subsequent behavior. When the opportunities of crimes are limited, the likelihood of a criminal act is less. Opportunity structure is conducive to environmental crime: most offenses takes litter effort, chances of detection are low, rationalizations are easily found and saving compliance costs is an attractive reward of non-compliance. Conversely, people living in the estuaries are transgressors of waste crime as they illegally settle and live in it, dump all their waste in the river ways and at the same time estuaries attracts opportunities through employment by scavenging in the area and a sanctuary for crime violators. Thus, a combination of criminal-centered and crime-centered frameworks.

Methodology:-
Using descriptive evaluative research and purposive sampling technique, three (3groupscomprising of480 served as respondents of the study. A detailed self-structured survey questionnaire was validated though concurrent and dryrun validation. For the dry run validation, a pre-test survey to select ten (10) individuals who possessed knowledge on the study and were not included as respondents in the survey proper was conducted. In the treatment and analysis of data, percentage method,four point likert scale, Pearson Product Moment of Coefficient Correlation r was utilized.

Population and Sampling Scheme:-
The target sample was 500 respondents, yet only 480 abled to answer the instrument. Out of 480 respondents, 440 or 92% represents the residents of the estuaries while 30 or 6 percent represents the barangay officials, and the 10 or 2 percent belongs to the environmental officers. The study utilized the purposive and convenient random sampling technique to determine the evaluation of the respondents on the degree of awareness in the commission of ecological solid waste management and the seriousness of the causes of commission of the same.
Research Instrument:-In gathering data, a self-structured survey questionnairewas utilized and divided into three parts.The first covers the demographic profile of respondents which includes estuaries, gender, educational attainment, family monthly income, household profile, waste disposal practices, scheme of waste collection. The fifth part addressed the suitability, feasibility and acceptability of the formulated initiatives and strategies for prevention and intervention of the commission of waste crime.

Results And Discussions:-
Part I. For the demographic profile of respondents which includes estuaries, gender, educational attainment, family monthly income, household profile, waste disposal practices.
Out of 480 respondents, 440 or 92 percent represents the residents of the estuaries while 30 or 6 percent represents the barangay officials, and the 10 or 2 percent belongs to the environmental officers.
For the gender, female dominates with 273 or 57 percentand 207 or 43 percent male respondents.
For the educational attainment, most of the respondents are high school graduate with 294 or 61 percent, followed by elementary graduate with 118 respondents or 25percent , followed by college graduate with 68 respondents or 14 percent. It shows that majority of the informal settler's lacks education and awareness as to waste crime.
For the family monthly income, all of the respondents, below the poverty line considering their number of household profile, 300 respondents or 63 percent bearing a monthly family income of only 4,999.00 and below, 160 respondents or 33percent bearing a monthly family income of 5,000.00-9,999.00 and below, and 20 or 4 percent bearing a monthly income of 10,000 and above.
For the household profile, majority of the respondents have a household profile of 6-10 members with 380 or 79 percent, followed by 1-5 household member with 100 respondents or 21 percent.   As can be gleaned in the table,as to Waste Characterization and Segregation,the overall evaluation of the respondents is "Less Aware" with a total mean of 2.32. The burden of conducting active information drive on waste segregation policy and how waste characterization and segregation is practiced from slum households must be addressed by the Local Government Unit.
As toSolid Waste Collection,the overall evaluation of the respondents is "Less Aware" with a total mean of 2.32. Waste collection is considered as one of the most vital urban service to protect public health and sanitation, as well as ecological and environmental problem. Thus, program frameworks, structures and system need to be formulated starting from the barangay unit, as they know what is fitting in their territory and people and an adoption of a sustainable waste collection system by the local government unit will be of utmost importance.
As to Solid Waste Reduction, , the indicator "Administrative sanctions for non-enforcement of RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Law for enforcers", all evaluated "Less Aware", that means that no environmental officers has been sanctioned for non-compliance of the law. Poonia (2012), emphasized waste minimization as a methodology used to achieve solid waste reduction, primarily through reduction at source, but also includes recycling and re-use of materials. The benefits of waste minimization are both environmental and financial and wide in coverage. To implement proper waste reduction, various aspects be considered such as; source reduction, onsite storage, collection and transfer, processing and disposal. Recycling and re-use can prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of raw materials thereby reducing waste, energy usage, pollution and environmental problems.
As to Penal Provisions, Fines and penalties under RA 9003 are so minimal and imprisonment is only correctional in nature. Violation and commission of such is not at par with the penalties. There is no grinding teeth, no impact of the enforcement of the law on the improper waste disposal coming from the commercial centers, human settlement and slum areas who are crime transgressor. And no one is imprisoned on the violation of this environmental crime in the Philippines.No such data can also be found in the website and only few studies have been published regarding waste crime.  The community residents have an overall evaluation of 3.02 or "Agree". The variables; Poverty; Environmental External Influence are interpreted as "Highly Agree" with a mean scores of 3.32 and 2.28, respectively. The variables; Education/Information Drive and Values Orientation are interpreted as" Agree" with mean scores of 2.51 and 2.98 respectively.
The barangay officials have an overall evaluation of 2.86 or "Agree". The variables; Poverty; Environmental External Influence and Education/Information Drive are interpreted as "Agree" with a mean scores of 3.20, 3.20 and 2.84 respectively. The variable, Values Orientation is interpreted as " Disagree" with mean score of 2.29. The environmental officers have an overall evaluation of 2.83 or "Agree". The variables; Poverty; Environmental External Influence and Education/Information Drive are interpreted as "Agree" with a mean scores of 3.20, 3.07 and 2.83 respectively. The variable, Values Orientation is interpreted as " Disagree" with mean score of 2.20.
The comparative evaluation indicates that the variables; Poverty; Environmental External Influence and Education/Information Drive and Values Orientation are the major causes of waste crime commission. Solid waste is not only environmental problem and environmental problems are certainly not the only issues competing for attention. It's not an isolated phenomena that can easily compartmentalized and solved with innovative technology and engineering rather, issues on economics, political, technical and social aspects of environmental governance that needs solutions. As manifested in the table, it shows relationship between and among the causes of waste crime commission at 0.01 level of significance. Hence, the null hypothesis on significant relationship is "Rejected".
The results indicated the importance of understanding the community concerns, sustainable solid waste management program, awareness of environmental crimes, enforcement and prosecution of environmental laws and willingness On suitability, the community residents, barangay officials and environmental officers evaluated the proposed waste crime prevention and intervention program as "Highly Suitable" with means score so 3.97, 3.98 and 4.0 respectively.
On feasibility, the community residents, barangay officials and environmental officers evaluated the proposed waste crime prevention and intervention program as "Highly Feasible" with means score so 3.95, 3.98 and 4.0 respectively.
On acceptability, the community residents, barangay officials and environmental officers evaluated the proposed waste crime prevention and intervention program as "Highly Acceptable" with means score so 3.96, 3.98 and 43.99 respectively.