Atienza can sue erring mayors, says environmentalist

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Environment Secretary Lito Atienza may not be able to send 1,000 erring mayors to jail for operating garbage dumps but he can still sue them.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Joey Papa of the Bangon Kalikasan Movement said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is authorized to issue cease-and-desist orders against violators of the country’s environmental laws.

If Atienza fails to do this, he should resign, Papa said.

Yeah, good luck with that. He sues the mayors, he losses his chance to run for higher office. I find it funny how Atienza became environment secretary. This from a guy who practically paved over all of Metro Manila. Remember Plaza Binondo? Instead of rehabilitating it with greenery, he paved it over and put tiles all over. Now there's no grass and trees to clean the air and no plants to take away the rainfall. When it rains, the tiles are very slippery. What a dumb idea.

If his main concern was the squatters living there, he could have just demolished the gazebo there and make it like a small park. But squatters are still there, they even swim and take a bath in the fountains.

Then again, there is no money to be made on planting grass and trees, but I bet there's a lot of money to be made in construction. Whoever that could have made money in that.