The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) is the primary government agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) mandated to formulate, integrate, coordinate, supervise and implement all policies, plans, programs, projects and activities relative to the prevention and control of pollution as well as the management and enhancement of the environment. By virtue of Executiv
e Order No. 192, the EMB was created as a Staff Bureau for the (DENR) during its reformation on July 10, 1987. The Bureau is a merger between the former National Environmental Protection Council (NEPC) and the former National Pollution Control Commission (NPCC) – inheriting its mandate to protect, conserve and manage the environment. In July 1999, the EMB is converted into a line bureau of in-line with the enactment of Republic Act 8749 or commonly known as the Philippine Clean Air Act. Consequently, the Environmental Management and Protected Areas Service (EMPAS) from the DENR Regional Offices were reorganized the following year to pave the way to the establishing EMB Regional Offices (RO) across the country. This has put the EMB in a better position to strengthen and improve the implementation of the following environmental laws:
• Environmental Impact Statement
System Law (Presidential Decree No.1586)
• Toxic Substances and Hazardous
and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990
(Republic Act No. 6969)
• Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999
(Republic Act 8749)
• Ecological Solid Waste Management
Act of 2000 (RA 9003)
• Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004
(Republic Act No. 9275)
• Pollution Control Law
(Presidential Decree No. 984)
The Bureau also functions under the mandate of the E.O. 192, which enables and entasks the office to provide research and laboratory services and serve as Secretariat in the adjudication of pollution cases, and the E.O. 320, which designates the bureau to function as the secretariat for the National Authority for Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Likewise, the EMB Central Luzon functions to ensure the protection, conservation, and management of the environment across region 3, through its 7 provinces.
