Monday, November 26, 2007
Talisay gets 10 days to submit rescue plan
THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 has given the Talisay City Government 10 days to submit a program of work aimed at improving the City-run landfill in Barangay Tapul.
Emman Larita, a private lot owner who opposes the operation of the landfill, told Sun.Star Cebu that Mayor Socrates Fernandez also welcomed his suggestions to upgrade the facility.
These, he said, include the measures to control the stench from the landfill, to keep the garbage from spilling into the streets from the hauling trucks and to open a new feeder road exclusively for garbage trucks.
“Mayor Socrates Fernandez was asked to sign by the EMB (Environmental Management Bureau) Chief, Engineer Allan Cunado, to submit a program of work within 10 days,” Larita said.
The DENR 7 held a technical conference last Friday amid demands from Larita’s group to close the landfill for lack of an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
The facility, which began operating in December 2005, sits on a 20-meter gully in Tapul, a hilly village about seven kilometers from the national highway.
The City established the landfill in compliance with Republic Act 9003, the Philippine Solid Waste Management Act, which outlaws all open dumpsites and requires their conversion to controlled dumps starting Feb. 16, 2004.
No deed, mayor says
But for lack of an ECC, the DENR 7 imposed a P50,000 fine on Talisay City early this year.
In turn, Fernandez appealed to the agency to exempt the City from paying the fine, saying the landfill is still an ongoing project that has complied with at least 85 percent of its requirements.
The mayor blamed the lack of a deed of absolute sale from three private lot owners as one of the hitches in the City’s ECC application.
The landfill partly occupies the lots of these private owners, who include the Larita clan, that have not reportedly been paid by the City Government.
Larita said he was supposed to build a house in the area but he could not tolerate the landfill’s odor.
“I’m really discouraged because we’ve been religiously paying taxes for our property. Now it has been used as an access road for foul-smelling garbage trucks,” he added.
Larita has already tied up with the Ecowaste Coalition, a Manila-based federation of environmental groups, which recently suggested to the DENR the immediate closure of the landfill.
The coalition described the facility as environmentally hazardous and unhealthy to residents nearby. (GC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (November 26, 2007 issue)
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