Thursday, September 25, 2008 Open dump prods 2 barangay chiefs to sue town mayor
BECAUSE the dumping of unsegregated garbage in an open dump site allegedly poses harm to students and residents, two barangay captains of Pinamungajan, Cebu sued their mayor.
Edgardo Cuaycong and Julius Alpas, village chiefs of Barangays Pandacan and Mangoto, respectively, filed a complaint against Mayor Geraldine Yapha before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
They claimed that the use of the open dump site in Pandacan violates the policy on garbage segregation in the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
In a phone interview, Yapha admitted to Sun.Star Cebu that garbage thrown into the open Pandacan dump site are not segregated.
But it is only a temporary site, she said, since the municipality is still processing the documents for the construction of a landfill in Barangay Binabag. The lot for the landfill in Binabag was acquired three years ago.
She said they are still waiting for the clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) for the Binabag landfill.
Yapha confirmed that the open dump site in Pandacan is at the back of Pinamungajan National High School, but it is not very near the school. The dump site has been used since 1986.
Its operation was also approved by the EMB, the mayor said.
Cuaycong and Alpas said in their complaint that the dump site posed health hazards to the students of the school nearby.
Alpas is also the president of the Parents Teachers Community Association of the school.
In a resolution dated Jan. 6, 2008, the Pandacan Barangay Council condemned the dump site’s “unmanaged system of garbage disposal, causing noxious odor.”
The council added that garbage in the dump site was not segregated. They also alleged that the site is within a military reservation area.
Yapha, however, explained to Sun.Star Cebu that although the area used to be a military camp, it did not necessarily belong to the military.
“The area was claimed by the military but it is not established nga ilaha (that it belonged to them),” the mayor said.
The two barangay captains said they resorted to filing a complaint against Yapha when, after seven months of waiting, the municipality allegedly failed to act on the council’s resolution.
Yapha had sent Cuaycong a letter dated Jan. 21 confirming that she had received a copy of the resolution.
In her letter, she said that she had already given instructions to fast-track the papers and permits for the establishment and operation of the municipality’s permanent waste disposal facility in Binabag.
Yapha also stated that she had instructed the Municipal Health Office personnel, the General Services Department and other concerned employees of the municipality to prevent health risks.
She reportedly directed them to implement measures to avoid putting the residents’ health and the environment at risk.
Yapha said this is the first complaint that her administration received regarding the dump site, but added that she will “respect any comment.”
In their resolution, the barangay captains also complained that the dump site has been attracting “waste pickers, animals, insects and rodents that spread disease-causing elements,” which pose health and environmental risks.
They added that the proximity of the site to Pinamungajan National High School is hazardous to the students, especially because the school is densely populated. (KAB)
