I recall a story from Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson where he urged the House of Representatives to scale back on the consumption of bottled water.
In House Resolution 242, Singson said the House should “serve as a role model for other government institutions to emulate.”
“The Lower House must be more conscious of the devastating impacts of using plastic bottles in the environment and must therefore refrain from using them,” Singson said.
He noted that under the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (Republic Act 9003), the State shall adopt a systematic, comprehensive, and ecological solid waste management program, which will utilize environmentally-sound methods that maximize the utilization of valuable resources and encourage resource conservation and recovery.
Singson said most government offices still serve meals and food products in plastic, styrofoam, and other environmentally harmful containers, which goes against the spirit of RA 9003.
“Whereas in the House of Representatives, for instance, concessionaires still serve water in plastic bottles, in particular, in the South Lounge, they only serve bottled water to House members and their guests,” the resolution read.
Singson said that the move to stop the use of plastic bottles will signal the beginning of policy reform in favor of the environment.
My take
I agree completely with Rep. Singson. Congress’ job does not end with just making laws. They must be first to practice and adopt the laws they make in their daily lives, so that constituents will see the urgency of why those laws were passed in the first place.
Politicians have been fooling us with their lip service and motherhood statements, which they are the first ones to defy and disobey.
So how can people treat them seriously. As it is we are plagued with too many laws, which are hardly enforced because nobody believes in them. It had always been a numbers game for these lawmakers. They cite their achievements on the number of laws they pass, no matter how irrelevant or insignificant to the times. And the laws they pass are the ones they defy. So what the heck.
Perhaps instead of thinking up new laws, it is time we consolidate and put more teeth into the laws, with no exceptions. The legislators make sure that they always pass laws that would apply only to the lowly citizens and those that they can manipulate with sanctions and penalties while they—the violators—are spared of such penalties.