Mayor sets take over of Rizal dump

Officials of Rodriguez, Rizal vowed to retake full control of the local garbage dump starting today after the municipal government accepted the termination of the sanitary landfill’s contract with the private contractor.

Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo assured Metro Mani­lans, however, that there will be no disruption in the operations of the landfill but stressed that they would implement a simplified “pay as you discharge” scheme.

“It will be business as usual because starting Monday, the municipality will be implementing a simplified “Pay as you discharge” payment scheme for all users of the landfill,” said Cuerpo in a statement.

He said that this is a fair and just system of compensation to a municipality and its residents who are hosting the landfill and affected by the social, health and other adverse costs for being the dumping ground for Metro Manila’s garbage.

But observers noted that Cuerpo’s action was aimed to put one over the decision of Justice Secretary Raul Gonza­lez dated Jan. 29 preventing the officials of Rodriguez to collect garbage fees and give the Rizal provincial government the authority to review the towns’ local ordinances.

In his ruling, Gonzalez claimed that charging garbage haulers fees when entering the town’s 14-hectare landfill has “resulted in the indirect imposition of taxes,” not only on the other local government units, but the national government as well.”

Based on an ordinance passed by the town council last year, a tipping fee ranging from P800 to P1,000 would be charged for every garbage truck that enters the landfill.

Gonzalez said imposing a tax on garbage trucks entering Rodriguez violated Sec. 133 of The Local Government Code which states that provinces, cities, municipalities, and ba­rangays should not extend taxes, fees, or charges of any kind on the national government, its agencies and instru­mentalities, and local government units.