NGO bats for b’gay MRF in Cabanatuan

An environmental non-government organization (NGO) insisted yesterday on the setting up of a barangay-based materials recovery facility (MRF) to address the garbage problem in Cabanatuan City.

The Bangon Kalikasan Movement, an affiliate of the Ecological Waste Coalition, opposed the solution being offered by Environment Management Bureau (EMB) Region 3 director Lormelyn Claudio on getting a portion of the 50-year-old, four-story high Valle Cruz open dumpsite in Cabanatuan City to temporarily store waste.

Joey Papa, president of the Bangon Kalikasan Movement, said a barangay-based and not a centralized and large-scale MRF is the "real alternative" to a dumpsite in Cabanatuan City.

"Claudio is proposing a wrong solution," Papa said. "Like a centralized, so-called ‘MRF’ which the city government wants to put up in place of the dump, ‘temporary storage’ is already illegal since the deadline for closure of all dumps was on Feb. 16."

"And because the whole and surrounding areas are already highly contaminated by the heavy metals from mixed wastes, as well as from hospital and other hazardous, infectious, and toxic wastes that have been dumped there in the last 50 years," he said.

Papa added that such a "temporary" dumpsite would only delay the sorting and segregation of wastes at their source.

"In fact, there is already a ‘temporary’ set-up very close to the dump which is also being operated by the same proponent of the proposed 7.8-hectare ‘MRF’ and which has become another source of problem for the residents," he said.

According to Papa, Undersecretary for the Environment Ramon Paje issued last year a cease-and-desist order to the Cabanatuan City government to close the Valle Cruz open dumpsite which it should have done so back in February 2004.

However, Papa said Claudio failed to implement the cease-and-desist order.

Also last year, Papa said concerned residents filed a complaint against Cabanatuan City Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara with the Office of the Environmental Ombudsman for alleged violation of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

"It is high time that the EMB start prevailing on (local government units) as it should have done so back in 2001, for them to put up barangay-based MRFs or Eco-Centers, and for those that have not yet closed their dumps, to follow the law or be penalized as the law prescribes," Papa said.