Speaking before members of the Tarlac Press and Radio Club during the induction ceremony of its newly elected officers, Gov. Jose Yap said the provincial government is "in a bind" on the issue of allowing other Central Luzon provinces to dump their wastes at the Clark sanitary landfill in Sitio Kalangitan in Capas town.
While his administration is committed to enforce the provincial board’s condition that wastes only from the Clark special economic zone and Tarlac have to be dumped at the landfill, Yap said no other than the national government has asked his office to open the landfill to neighboring provinces.
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun and the National Commission on Solid Waste Management (NCSWM) have requested Tarlac officials to accommodate other Central Luzon provinces in the landfill.
Pampanga officials have thrown their support behind the request, but Yap has brought the issue to Vice Gov. Marcelino Aganon Jr. and the members of the provincial board.
It was the board that allowed the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and the German consortium, BN Consultants, to build the multimillion-dollar landfill, but on the condition that wastes that will be dumped there will be limited to only Tarlac and the Clark ecozone and that Tarlaqueños will be given priority in jobs there.
The board also demanded that the landfill be regularly opened for inspection by the provincial government, and that the CDC remit to the province its tax shares from the landfill’s operations.
Yap said another round of public consultations will have to be undertaken before the board could decide on the request of Gozun and the NCSWM.
Should the landfill be finally opened to the rest of Central Luzon, Yap said he would personally demand that Tarlac be entitled to at least a P10 tipping fee for every ton of garbage that will be dumped there by neighboring provinces.
Such funds, he said, could be placed in a "trust fund" that will be used solely for the development of Tarlac’s tourist spots.
Should the province’s income from the landfill be further increased, Yap said this could also be used in "providing more sufficient allocations for our health and other social services, the construction of more roads and bridges in remote communities, and more funds for the agricultural sector."