PUSHING FOR MINAMATA RATIFICATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

The main office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) together with the United Nations Industrial Department Organization UNIDO) held a validation workshop for the National Action Plan for the Phase-out of Mercury-Added Products and the Sound Management of Mercury-Containing Wastes last June 4, 2019 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM at the United Nations Philippines Office, 14^th Floor, North Tower, Rockwell Business Center Sheridan, corner United and Sheridan streets, Mandaluyong City. The event aimed to polish the proposed policies, strengthen the capacities, clarify the quality data and evidence, map-out the implementation and innovation involved and promote partnership and advocacy to ultimately ratify and implement the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

The Minamata Convention is an international treaty comprise of almost 140 countries including the Philippines which aims to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and release of mercury and mercury compounds. Last October 2013, the treaty was adopted and signed after 3 years of negotiation among countries. As of April 2019, 109 countries already ratified and the Philippines is yet to do so. The validation workshop started with a welcome remarks from Ms. Tonilyn P. Lim, the Country Representative of UNIDO. Engr. Vizminda A. Osorio, the Assistant Director of DENR-EMB also gave her opening remarks. Both of these talks presented the efforts of the Philippines in Mercury Phase-out including the activities and outputs of the Inter-Agency Technical Working Group (IATWG) comprising of the DENR, Department of Health (DOH) & Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , Department of Labor and Employment - Occupational Safety and Health (DOLE-OSH), Department of Foreign Affairs – Bureau of Customs (DFA-BoC), Department of Energy (DoE), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Agriculture – Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (DA-FPA), Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Civil Societies Organization (CSO). Mr. Teddy G. Monroy, the Project Coordinator of the mercury phase-out in the Philippines at UNIDO recap the importance of the ratification through a comprehensive presentation of the background, diseases, prevention, statistics and updates related to mercury. The workshop was later facilitated by Ms. Haidee Penero of UNIDO where the specific activities for the mercury phase-out were divided among the participants into 4 groups. These groups are the policy group, capacities and quality data/evidence group, innovation and implementation group and partnerships and advocacy group. The outputs where later presented. Notable concerns include budgeting issues for implementation, Bureau of Customs problems which drew a lot of attention, development of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and monitoring of the implementation.

Stakeholders from the business sector were also invited during the event as products including medical devices may contain mercury and be greatly affected. These products include dental amalgams, thermometers, barometers and spymomanometers, although most of these are already phased-out voluntarily by medical device companies. More importantly, it was also emphasized that products without any suitable replacement for its mercury component may still be retained but subject to regulatory controls by the designated government office/s. Other stakeholders present include Samahan sa Pilipinas ng Industriyang kemikal, Chamber of Cosmetics Industry, Philippine Dental Association (PDA), Philippine Hospital Association (PHA), Philippine Center or Creative Imaging (PCCI) and PAMDRAP led by Charmaine Roson of Kimberly Clark. This efforts of validating the National Action Plan aims to ultimately phase-out mercury-added products and regulate mercury residues by 2020.