DENR shuts down open dump
URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan: Officers and members of the Citizens Movement Against Corruption, Crime, Illegal Drugs and Gambling Inc. headed by Prof. Salvador Singson-de Guzman and thousands of residents in 14 villages here have commended the Department of Environment and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Management Bureau (DENREMB) for issuing a cease-and-desist order for the closure of a sanitary landfill in Barangay Catablan in the city for several violations.
De Guzman said the closure was ordered by DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu based on a recommendation of his group, and on results of investigation conducted by EMB Ilocos Regional Director Dorica Hipe.
The department had ordered the probe after the residents of four villages in Matulong and Parian in Manaoag town; Leet, Matic-matic, Menien East and Menien West in Sta. Barbara town; Aserda, Primicias, Luyan, Torres and Lambayan in Mapandan town; and Pinmaludpud, Labit West and Catablan in Urdaneta City approached the group of De Guzman and asked the latter to bring their complaint to the DENR, citing a thorough and investigative report made by this writer and published in The Manila Times.
The citizens movement thanked The Times management for coming out with the report, which was used by DENR officials as a basis for conducting the inquiry into the landfill.
The open dump was being operated by the Urdaneta city government and the barangay (village) council of Catablan that were allegedly collecting more than P7 million in monthly revenue, but it was not clear whether such amount was remitted to the city treasurer’s office.
Majority of employees providing security to the open dump are members of the Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVO) in Catablan who are also collecting P120 per truckload of waste without issuing any official receipt from the city government, according to De Guzman.
He said his group is planning to file criminal and administrative charges against the responsible public officials who ordered the
collection by the CVO.
In her report, Hipe said the landfill violated the Clean Water Act, Presidential Decree 1586 or the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement and Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
“The violation under RA 9003 [pertains to] the operation of an open dump. Although it is a sanitary landfill, what happened is that they just dumped the waste and it was no longer being managed. It is no longer based on the operation of a sanitary landfill that it has become an open dump,” she added.
Hipe said the Urdaneta landfill also violated the Clean Water Act
as analysis of its water sample exceeded the effluent standard.
“The conditions of the environmental compliance certificate issued to the local government unit (LGU) for the operation of the sanitary landfill were not complied with like the designation of a control officer, submission of a compliance report, and [assurance] that the operation of the landfill [is] in accordance with the guidelines for [its] proper operation and management,” she added.
Meanwhile, Mayor Julio Parayno 3rd said they will appeal to the DENR to allow Urdaneta City to still use the landfill for their waste.
“We will do away with the other LGUs dumping in the landfill.
More or less, there are 30 LGUs under contract,” he added in an interview.
Parayno said the private company they had a contract with for rehabilitation of the landfill did not deliver as expected.
“We cannot close it yet because of breach of contract but now it is the DENR that issued the closure. This private company will have to answer to the LGUs that have contracted for the use of the landfill,” he added.
Hipe said the LGU may take legal recourse but in the meantime, the sanitary landfill will be closed.
The DENR order was served to the LGU on Friday and the DENR-EMB team proceeded to the landfill to ensure its closure.