Stop accepting garbage

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)Central Visayas ordered the owner of a private sanitary landfill in Aloguinsan to stop accepting garbage being transported to his facility.

DENR-Central Visayas discovered that the sanitary landfill in Punay, a mountain barangay, accepted waste even if it still has no environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

The landfill belongs to Rafael Moreno, son of Aloguinsan Mayor Augustus Caesar Moreno. The DENR-Central Visayas Environmental Management Bureau is set to meet with Moreno in a technical conference on Friday.

For his part, Mayor Moreno said yesterday that the Aloguinsan Municipal Government will follow whatever order the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) will issue regarding the sanitary landfill. The temporary closure, he said, will affect the Municipal Government in terms of lost potential revenue.

“But why only Cebu City garbage? Do you mean to say the landfill operator can accept solid waste from any area except Cebu City?” said Moreno, who had yet to read the cease-and-desist order from the EMB.

The order, dated Jan. 20, 2017, said that the landfill must “immediately cease and desist from further accepting any garbage… until the approval of its ECC and other environmental permits.”

It does not single out garbage from Cebu City. Interviewed separately, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the concerns of some Carcar City residents on the stench from garbage being transported to Aloguinsan have been resolved. Osmeña said that Cebu City’s Department of Public Services has talked to Jomara Konstruckt Corp. (JKC) and asked them to address the matter, since they’re the ones that entered a contract with the private landfill.

The mayor also reminded residents to decide if they want to be a good neighbor to the City or not.