Puno urged: Probe 'hasty' ruling vs TRO on San Mateo landfill

MANILA, Philippines - Calling it a “miscarriage of justice” and “violation of human rights,” an environment group yesterday urged Chief Justice Reynato Puno to look into the “hasty ruling” of a regional trial court (RTC) denying an appeal for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the operation of a new sanitary landfill in San Mateo, Rizal.

The Bangon Kalikasan Movement (BKM) maintained that the establishment and operation of so-called “sanitary landfills” are illegal under the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act 9003), describing these as “glorified dumps or dumps in disguise.”

Puno, according to Joey Papa of BKM, “should immediately investigate the hasty ruling… after the old (landfill) was ordered permanently closed by the Supreme Court in 2005.”

“He should look into this to avoid a miscarriage of justice and violation (of) human rights,” he said.

Citing Puno’s “own words,” the BKM said the construction of sanitary landfills denies the affected communities their “basic human right to life, to health and to well-being.”

BKM said communities, especially their people, must be provided with adequate sources of sustenance and livelihood, clean water and clean air, and a hazard-free environment.

San Mateo RTC (Branch 75) Judge Manuel Taro earlier had denied the petition for a TRO filed by the Ecological Waste Coalition (EcoWaste) and Filinvest Land Inc.

Taro said he found “no compelling urgent reason and no threat of irreparable injury” to justify the grant of a TRO.

EcoWaste filed its petition for a TRO last Feb. 16, while the court decision came out two days later.

Residents, together with environmental groups, have been opposing the ongoing construction of the new landfill in San Mateo, fearing that the establishment of another landfill in the town could be catastrophic to their communities and the environment.

They said the new landfill, once operational, would produce large amounts of leachate that would seep through the ground, thus polluting the soil, groundwater and nearby rivers.

They added that the 200-hectare area to be covered by the new landfill is part of the 473-hectare protected forest area under the land use plan of San Mateo.

The landfill project is allegedly spearheaded by Mayor Jose Rafael Diaz with the support of the provincial government headed by Gov. Casimiro Ynares III.

The 200-hectare landfill will purportedly serve as dumping ground of garbage from San Mateo and neighboring towns as well as Metro Manila, which used to dump its wastes on the landfill which the Supreme Court ordered shut down in 2005.

The project developers reportedly managed to obtain an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources apparently for the construction of the landfill in Sitio Mabilog na Bato, Barangay Pintong Bukawe.

But concerned residents and environmentalists said the project would actually be constructed on a protected forested part of San Mateo, particularly in Barangays Maly and Guinayang.   – With Non Alquitran