Legarda bill uplifts waste workers with social benefits, safety

Senator Loren Legarda is challenging the public to volunteer for the National Clean-up Month (NCM) this September, including International Coastal Clean-up Day (ICCD), as their share in transforming environmental policies into tangible community action.

“This September, let us rise to the challenge. Protecting our environment demands more than compliance; it requires unity, urgency, and daily commitment. Let us turn this moment into a movement toward a cleaner and more resilient Philippines,” said the principal author and sponsor of the Climate Change Act of 2009 and Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

“We need public participation, local innovation, and sustained community action. As we mark National Clean-up Month and ICC Day or any environmental awareness initiative, I urge my fellow Filipinos to treat these events not as one-time activities but as catalysts for lasting change,” Legarda added.

Presidential Proclamation 244 s. 1993 mandates the observance of NCM, while PP 470 s. 2003 designates every third Saturday of September as ICCD, both relevant in light of around 61,000 metric tons of solid waste generated in the country daily, based on data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). She highlighted that last year’s ICCD removed 352,479 kilograms of trash from 250 sites nationwide in just one day.

Legarda said 12 to 24 percent of the waste are plastic as each Filipino consumes an average of 20 kilograms of such materials per year, with 15.4 kilograms ending up as waste.

The country is one the world’s top contributors to ocean plastic pollution, accounting for roughly 36 percent of global marine waste, according to the DENR data.

“These numbers are visible scars,” Legarda warned. “Flooding and mass displacement are no longer isolated events; these are symptoms of clogged waterways, deforested uplands, and years of poor waste management. The effects of pollution and climate change are not distant threats; they are happening in the present and are costing Filipino lives.”

While there are those who will volunteer to clean up for a day or two, waste workers will have their hands full every day.

Recognizing the hazards faced by these workers, not to mention low wages, lack of job security, and discrimination due, Legarda has refiled in the 20th Congress a bill that seeks to standardize working conditions for these sanitation front-liners.

Under her proposed Magna Carta for Waste Workers Act, public and private waste workers, including waste pickers or scavengers, would be covered by hazard pay and free annual medical exams to be shouldered by their employers.

The bill also provides them with personal protective equipment, vaccinations and other prophylactic measures like tetanus shots, hospitalization, and regular dental, medical and mental check-ups.

Moreover, their work hours shall be limited to eight hours per day with any excess workhours subject to overtime and holiday pay.

The Department of Labor and Employment will be tasked to establish guidelines and mechanisms to ensure fair and safe working conditions, including security of tenure. The Department of Social Welfare and Development will provide them with social protection.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will be tasked with accrediting and certifying technical and vocational education and training programs for waste workers to ensure their competence.

“The waste management industry is an unheralded but vital aspect of our everyday lives. Our waste workers strive every day to prevent the spread of disease caused by decaying garbage,” Legarda said.

“With the passage of this bill, we are giving gratitude to those who have continued to work this noble occupation.”