Legal Indicators for Public
Participation in the Environmental
Impact Statement System in thePhilippines
Rose-Liza Eisma-Osorio

Outline of Presentation
Introduction
Philippine EIA Law, Regulations and Guidelines
Public Participation in EIA in the Philippines
Judicial and Non-Judicial Remedies for complaints
Environmental Management Fund

Introduction
The 1998 Aarhus Convention established rules for
public participation, appeals and access to justicemeasures.
State’s policies of full public disclosure andtransparency vis-a-vis right to information and right toenvironment.

Philippine EIA Law,Regulations and Guidelines
The Philippine Environment Policy (Presidential Decree 1151)
launched a comprehensive program of environmental
protection and management.
The Philippine Environment Code (Presidential Decree 1152)
required public hearing on issues of environmental significance.
The Philippine EIS System (Presidential Decree 1586)
institutionalized EIA as a planning tool for sustainable
development that seeks to reconcile the exigencies ofsocioeconomic undertaking with environmental quality.

Scope of EIS System
All proposed government and private projects and undertakings
which significantly affects the quality of the environment.
These are environmentally critical projects or areas which havebeen declared pursuant to a Presidential Proclamation No.
2146.
These include, in general, heavy industries, resource extractiveindustries, infrastructure projects as environmentally criticalprojects. Important enterprises, such as nuclear power plants,
reclamation projects, mining and quarrying projects, amongothers, are included.

EIA Process3 General Criteria for reviewof EIS(1) that environmental considerations are integrated
into the overall project planning,(2) that the assessment is technically sound andproposed mitigation measures are effective, and(3) that social acceptability is based on informed publicparticipation.

Public Participation in EIA in
the Philippines
Public participation is defined under the administrative
guidelines as an open, transparent, gender sensitive, andcommunity-based process aimed at ensuring social
acceptability of a project or undertaking, involving thebroadest range of stakeholders, commencing at theearliest possible state of project design and development
and continuing until post-assessment monitoring.
Stakeholders mean all entities who may be directly andsignificantly affected by the project or undertaking.

Opportunities forparticipation
Revised Procedural Manual for DENR Administrative
Order No. 30 Series of 2003(DAO 03-30) provides
three (3) opportunities for participation:
Scoping,
EIA Review stage after the completion of EIA report
Monitoring stage after the issuing of environmentalpermits.

DENR Memorandum
Circular 2010-14
This involves the standardization of requirements andenhancement of public participation in the streamlined
implementation of the Philippine EIA System.
The notification procedure is aimed at involving all
relevant or affected residents in the community. But theengagement procedure is also limited by the fact thatthose who are notified and invited to the publicconsultations are those only identified by the local
government unit concerned.

Notification Procedure
Notification Method
Pre-consultation stage - ‘adequate announcement or invitationof relevant member of the public’.
Public hearing - ‘…open, without need for a formal invitation, to
all interested groups.’; announcements of hearing may alsoutilize popular form
Note that procedure for conducting a public consultation is similar
to that of a public hearing -- except that a public hearing is aformal process whereas public consultation does not have any
mandated formats and can be informal. There are no specificguidelines on how the public consultation is to be conducted.

Notification Procedure
Notification Period
published once a week for 2 consecutive weeks in any
newspaper of general circulation with the 2nd
publication undertaken at least 15 days prior to thescheduled hearing.
Notices posted in conspicuous places in themunicipality and barangay where the project isproposed to be located shall be at least 15 days prior
to the scheduled hearing.

Range of Participants
Stakeholders are persons or groups who may be significantly
affected by the project or undertaking, directly or indirectly.
They may include: (1) persons living or working within theidentified impact (direct and secondary) areas; (2) persons withproperties in the impact areas; (3) persons living or working
within the boundaries of the impact areas; (4) organized interest
groups (such as NGOs and POs) operating in the impact areas;(5) industry representatives in the impact areas; (6) local
government units (LGUs); (7) indigenous cultural communities(ICCs) in the impact areas; (8) local institutions (church, school)in the areas; and (9) concerned national agencies, e.g., HLURB,DOE, DOT, DTI, PCTT, PAMBs, DAR, DA, etc.

Judicial and Non-judicial
procedure for complaints
DENR AO 2003-30 provides for an appeal by any
aggrieved party by the final decision on the ECC/CNC
applications within 15 days from receipt of the decision
based on the following grounds: grave abuse of discretionon the part of the deciding authority and serious errors in
the review findings (Section 6).
Also, the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases
allows for citizen suit against any person who violates any
environmental law, including public officials who are guilty
thereof in the implementation of any environmental law.

Environmental Monitoring
FundA fund established by the proponent as required after an ECC is issued for its
project or undertaking
Used to support the activities of the multi-partite monitoring team formed forenvironmentally critical projects (ECPs).
Amount is based on the annual work and financial plan approved by the EMB.
Fund Admistrator opens an account with a government accredited bank
It shall be immediately accessible and easily disbursable.
MMT members esp those who lose their opportunity to earn while participatingin MMT activities shall receive an honoraria for their participation charged to theEMF. Other allowed expenses are emergency meetings, capability building, etc.

Questions?