By Tonette Orejas, Robert Gonzaga
Central Luzon Desk
First Posted 04:39:00 10/05/2010
Filed Under: Waste Management & Pollution Control, Environmental pollution
OLONGAPO CITY—A city council resolution approving the hauling of garbage from Angeles City in Pampanga to a controlled dump here is generating criticism from residents and opposition politicians, with their protest being expressed through a social networking website.
In a Facebook page titled, “Save Olongapo, No to Pampanga’s Garbage,” residents vented their ire and frustration against “rotten politicians” who approved the council resolution, which was later endorsed by Mayor James Gordon Jr.
The resolution, approved on Sept. 23, authorized Gordon to enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with M22 Construction Co., owned by businessman Michael Pelayo, son of Mayor Jerry Pelayo of Candaba, Pampanga.
Gordon, in a letter to the council endorsing the resolution, said M22 Construction Co. would pay a tipping fee of P2,300 per truck for using the city’s dump.
“With an established revenue stream, through M22 Construction Co.’s payment of a tipping fee … the proposed legislation facilitates the establishment of both the social and investment viability of converting the city’s controlled dump into a sanitary landfill and recycling facility,” he said.
But residents and Vice Mayor Rolen Paulino protested the project.
“This could bring no good to people here. What’s worse is that even before the resolution was approved, trucks were already arriving here to dump garbage from Pampanga. So far, we’ve monitored that over 40 trucks had delivered … garbage here. It only stopped when I began raising the issue in the council,” Paulino told the Inquirer.
Scavengers confirmed the arrival of the trucks last month. They said they could not recover anything of value from what the trucks were dumping here, which they described as crushed and torn garbage.
But Michael Pelayo, general manager of M22 Construction Co., said the company’s MOA with Olongapo City is “in process,” noting that work had yet to start. The company, which is engaged in general construction, has “not started dumping waste yet in Olongapo,” said Pelayo.
In Pampanga, Arthur Punsalan, provincial environment officer, said his office has not accredited any contractor to collect or haul garbage from the province.
“We don’t have a policy to dispose of garbage in Olongapo City or other places. We have contracted the Kalangitan landfill [of the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. in Capas, Tarlac] to accept domestic waste from Pampanga,” he said.
The provincial government has also encouraged the establishment of material recovery facilities, he said.
Lawyer Dennis Pamintuan, administrator of Angeles City, said the city government has not contracted M22 to haul its garbage. The city’s waste is instead thrown in a landfill in San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan on a “trial stage,” Pamintuan said.
Paulino said the Olongapo government, which collects a monthly garbage fee from residents, is also paid P500,000 a month by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) so it could throw garbage in the city dump.
“In fact, the agreement is that the SBMA can haul [its] garbage here with no limit,” he said.
“But these deliveries from Pampanga only make them sick with the stench. I fear that the materials they are bringing here can cause [environmental degradation] and pollute the bodies of water in the surrounding areas,” Paulino added.
