DENR blasts Tarlac City for improper waste disposal

TARLAC CITY, Tarlac — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has issued a warning to the city government, citing this city’s improper and inefficient waste management as documented by the Environment Management Bureau (EMB), it was learned yesterday.

In a letter to Mayor Cristy Angeles, DENR Regional Executive Director Eligio T. Ildefonso said that after reviewing Tarlac City’s waste management practices it was found to have “numerous cases of violations which were documented by the Environmental Management Bureau of DENR’s Regional and Central Office.”

Such violations entail sanctions, Ildefonso said in the letter, a copy of which was sent to the Manila Bulletin.

To avoid sanctions, the DENR official directed Mayor Angeles to “comply with and achieve the mandated diversion targets under the law” and advised that “the existing but idled Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in the City of Tarlac should be immediately put into effective operation.”

Tarlac had already put up its MRF before Angeles assumed office, but the DENR observed that the lady mayor has not utilized the established MRF facilities.

On March 14, 2016, the City of Tarlac entered a joint venture agreement with MRF-ITECH, Inc. represented by its president and chief executive officer Glenn Ampongan, for the establishment and operation of MRF in the city to address the city’s worsening waste disposal problem.

But when Angeles assumed as mayor in July, 2016, she allegedly refused to honor the agreement and, as such, refrained from utilizing the established MRF.

Based on its data, the DENR said the city generates of 241.767 tons of waste per day but it has only disposed an average of 127.589 tons per day. The DENR said this translates to a poor collection efficiency of only 52.77 percent.

In his letter, Ildefonso said this data gathered by the DENR “explains the presence of numerous illegal dumps within the city.”