Policy Implementation of the Republic Act (RA) 9003 in the Philippines: A Case Study of Cebu City

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is considered to be one of the most serious environmental issues in the Philippines. The annual waste generation was estimated at 10 million tons in 2010 and this is expected to rise by 40% in 2020. The Republic Act (RA) 9003, otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, provides the necessary policy framework, institutional mechanisms and mandate to the local government unites (LGUs) to achieve 25% waste reduction through establishing an integrated solid waste management plans based on 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycling). While the efforts of LGUs are still very limited with a mix of results in implementing the national mandate, this paper presents the experiences of Cebu, a second largest city in the Philippines with about one million people, has shown to have succeeded in reducing its municipal waste generation by more than 30% over the last three years. The findings suggest that the impacts of the national mandate can be achieved if the LGUs have the high level of political commitment, development of effective local strategies in collaborative manner, partnership building with other stakeholders, capacity development, adequate financing and incentives, and in the close monitoring and evaluation of performance.