Question & AnswerQ&A (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1160)
Barangay Captains, along with Barangay Councilmen and Barangay Zone Chairmen, are deputized as peace officers with authority to enforce and implement national and local laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations governing pollution control and environmental disturbances, including the power to effect arrest of violators in accordance with law.
Barangay Councilmen and Barangay Zone Chairmen are deputized as peace officers alongside Barangay Captains to enforce pollution control laws and environmental protection regulations, with authority to arrest violators.
They are laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations designed to prohibit, control, or regulate contamination of soil, water, or air with harmful substances, or activities causing ecological imbalance or environmental disturbance, including denudation of forests or watersheds that lead to soil erosion, floods, drying of water bodies, or other alterations of natural water courses.
Contamination of soil, water, or air with poisonous or harmful substances, ecological imbalance, environmental disturbances like deforestation, soil erosion, floods, drying up of rivers, lakes and streams, and alteration of natural water courses.
Criminal aspects such as arrest and prosecution of offenders, civil and administrative aspects including summary or judicial abatement of nuisances and cancellation of government licenses or permits related to nuisances shall be vigorously enforced.
Courts and appropriate agencies are required to give preferential and expedited disposition to cases involving environmental violations when the magnitude affects a major portion of the community, certified by the National Pollution Control Commission or National Environmental Protection Council.
The National Environmental Protection Council is tasked to promulgate the necessary rules and regulations for effective implementation of the decree.
All laws, decrees, orders, instructions, or rules and regulations inconsistent with this decree are repealed or modified accordingly.
The decree took effect upon its approval on June 8, 1977.
It enables barangay officials at the grassroots level to directly enforce environmental laws, make arrests, and address pollution and ecological disturbances quickly and effectively within their communities, thereby enhancing community participation in environmental protection.