Tarlac landfill okayed

CAPAS, Tarlac — By a simple majority vote, Tarlac’s provincial board has given the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) the green light to develop a 100-hectare area in an upland village here for its controversial multimillion-dollar sanitary landfill.

The board reached the decision despite the multisectoral movement, led by Capas Mayor Rey Catacutan, against the landfill project.

The CDC has awarded the 25-year, build-operate-and-transfer contract for the proposed waste facility to the German consortium Ingenieurburo Birkhahn+Nolte.

The landfill will be developed in this town’s upland western village of Kalangitan, where hundreds of Aetas displaced by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 were relocated.

Barely five kilometers away from Kalangitan is the Dapdap resettlement site in Bamban, where nearly 4,000 lowland families also displaced by the Pinatubo eruption, now live.

When the provincial board met to rule on the issue late last Monday, Vice Gov. Marcelino Aganon Jr., the board’s presiding officer, opted to hold the discussions behind closed doors.

Anti-landfill advocates trooped to the capitol building in Tarlac City upon learning that the board would decide on the issue.

Catacutan, who took part in a Holy Week anti-landfill protest here called Kalbaryo ng Tarlakenyo, described the board’s decision as "contrary to our people’s will."

He said majority of the board members who favored the landfill project "failed to take note of the general sentiment that dominated the public consultations (held on the issue)."

Only three board members stood firm against the proposed landfill, namely, Alvin Belarmino, Enrique Quizon and Isaias Apostol, an ex-officio board member, he being the president of the Tarlac chapter of the Philippine Councilors’ League.

Those who voted in favor of the controversial project were board members Carlito David, Errol Aganon, Pablito Rosete, Pearl Angeli Erguiza-Pacada, Amado de Leon, Rolando Pineda, and ex-officio board member and Association of Barangay Chairmen president Noel de la Cruz.

The pro-landfill board members are all party-mates of Yap and Aganon in the local Sama-Sama sa Tarlac (SST) party. Absent during the voting were board members Nicholo Nisce and Guillermina Tabamo.

Under the pro-landfill resolution, the province will only allow the CDC to use five hectares of the proposed 100-hectare project site in Kalangitan as "pilot area" for the waste facility.

Moreover, only waste from Tarlac and the Clark special economic zone will be dumped in the landfill.

Yap has approved the board’s resolution. — With Ding Cervantes