By Charissa Luci-Atienza As far as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is concerned, single-use plastic bags should be heavily taxed by Congress to discourage its use and help address the alarming plastic pollution in the country. (MANILA BULLETIN) DENR Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns Benny Antiporda made the call as the House Committee on Ways and Means is set to invite the DENR to ask its position on House Bill 178 which seeks to impose P10 excise tax for every kilo of single-use plastic bag removed from the place of production or released from the customs house. "I propose that rather than banning it, we should tax it. We should impose heavy tax," Antiporda said. He said the P10 excise tax for every kilo of single-use plastic bag as proposed under Suansing's bill is not enough to deter the use of plastics. "It should be higher because when we impose higher tax, the cost will be shouldered by Juan dela Cruz and they will be discouraged to buy that. They will definitely go for cheaper products," Antiporda said. The DENR official said they will come up with a proposal that will not only discourage the use of single-use plastics, but even residuals or garbage or thrash that cannot be recycled. "We will be coming up with a proposal for additional tax for this to address the environmental issue," he said. "We are still looking at who will take care of tax and how it will go back to the DENR so we can address the solid waste issue," he added. Antiporda said he is ready to attend the House panel's meeting to discuss the DENR's position on the issue. However, the invitation has yet to be extended by the House panel chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda to the DENR. "As of the moment, if you can notice, everything was so prioritized, but solid waste was the last and least. So since that is the situation, I think this is an alarming situation now wherein we have to wake up and take care of it by means of taxing, shall we say, abusive capitalist on products which are using residuals even without concern for the environment," Antiporda said. Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing, who principally authored the bill and vice chairperson of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said they will seek the DENR's position on HB 178, which she filed along with her husband, Sultan Kudarat Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr. Antiporda proposed that all the excise tax collection should be allocated to the Solid Waste Management Fund. Under HB 178, the Suansings proposed that 50 percent of the revenues shall be allocated to the Solid Waste Management Fund. "It should be 100 percent. I will propose that all goes directly to the solid waste management because we need a large amount of money when it comes to solving this problem. If we don't come up with technologies, nothing will happen. The technology comes with a price," Antiporda pointed out. On the concerns of the plastics industry, he said imposing excise tax on single-use plastic bags will not turn it into a "dying" industry. "It won't die because they need to come up with a solution to this problem. Since their business is packaging, they should come up with environment-friendly packaging. We have tolerated them for how many decades already. I don't think we can tolerate them for another decade," the DENR official said. During a hearing on Monday, Willy Go, president of the Philippine Plastics Industry Association (PPIA), said their volume of production has been reduced to 20 percent as some LGUs already banned the use of plastic. "Probably the plastic bag industry will just disappear. So we think no need to legislate this bill as we are already dying,” he told the panel. In an interview with reporters, Go said the proposed imposition of excise tax on single-use plastic bags will hit consumers. "The cost will be higher. The root cause is the lack of discipline. What happened is we are penalizing the product and the consumer bears the impact," Go said, even as he appealed to lawmakers to carefully study the proposal. Suansing insisted that excise tax should be imposed on single-use plastic bags to address the alarming plastic pollution in the country, citing that every day, almost 48 million shopping bags are used throughout the Philippines. "The mass consumption of plastic in the Philippines further magnifies the flooding problem that Filipinos experience, especially during the typhoon season. To reduce its costly environmental impact, several countries have already imposed taxes on plastic bag,” she said. She said they are looking at the utilization of environment-friendly alternatives to single-use plastic bags. "Furthermore, this proposed measure aims to generate additional revenues for the government which could be used to finance programs and projects to counter the harmful effects of plastic pollution in the Philippines," she added.