Quezon City government welcomes SC ruling on Payatas dump case

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City government welcomed yesterday a Supreme Court (SC) ruling granting the motion for reconsideration filed by Quezon City homeowners and residents seeking the closure of the Payatas sanitary landfill.

“Both parties may now present to the Court of Appeals (CA) each other’s position on the Payatas sanitary landfill issue,” Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista told The STAR in a text message.

In reversing its ruling dismissing the petition of the Alyansa ng mga Samahang Nagkakaisa sa Payatas, the SC issued a writ of kalikasan and ordered the respondents – Bautista and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau – to answer the petition of the group.

The SC also referred the case to the CA.

The petitioners claimed IPM Environment Services Inc., Quezon City’s private garbage contractor, was encroaching on the Lupang Pangako resettlement area that was created in the mid-1980s.

Petitioners also claimed that some contractors of the Quezon City government are threatening and harassing them to sell or vacate their lots so they could expand the sanitary landfill.