Mt. Province, Kalinga settle dump site issue

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines - The Fourth Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) has approved the compromise settlement between Kalinga and Mt. Province over a thorny open dump site issue earning the latter a Writ of Kalikasan case.

The settlement which was signed by the parties and submitted to the division on February 12  gives officials of Bontoc town and Mt. Province six months to close and rehabilitate the Caluttit dump site, which according to Kalinga, has been polluting the Chico River that straddles  Mt. Province and Kalinga and drains to the Cagayan River.

The dumping of garbage in the “Caluttit dump site” which is located on a mountainside towards the Chico River has been a  source of controversy between the two Cordillera provinces  for at least a decade now,  prompting the filing of the environmental case by the non-government organization Kalinga Anti-pollution Action Group (KAPAG) in October last year.

Aside from the Bontoc and Mt. Province local government units, the Environmental Management Bureau-Cordillera (EMB-CAR), Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Cordillera (DENR-CAR, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) represented by their respective chiefs were included in the case for allegedly being remiss in their duties to implement environmental laws in the particular case.

In the compromise agreement, all the parties acknowledged that the continued operation of the Caluttit open dump site violates Republic Act No. 9003 otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 which prohibits the establishment and operation of open dump site and controlled dump sites starting February 16,2001.

Both agreed that the Bontoc local government unit with the assistance of  the Mt. Province provincial government will voluntarily undertake the closure and rehabilitation of the dump site within six months starting February 22 when the decision was promulgated.

The undertaking includes the following activities: repair of the retaining wall; fencing of the whole dump site to prevent further dumping; soil cover rehabilitation; site re-vegetation; putting up a signage that the dump site is closed; and removal of the accumulated garbage in the dump site “if found technically sound and feasible” by the DENR and the EMB.

Such agreement was the same compromise proposed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) which was rejected by both the KAPAG and the Bontoc and Mt. Province during the amicable settlement  negotiations  in Bontoc on February 1.

The talks failed as the respondents insisted on a two-year extension on the usage of the dump site invoking the expected difficulty of finding a Temporary Residual Containment Area (TRCA), citing the dearth of available land in the town and likewise the time needed for the development of the Sanitary Landfill (SLF) in the lot which the LGU has already bought for the purpose.

On the other hand, KAPAG representatives refused to budge on their demand for the immediate closure of the dump site saying that further usage of the dump site is non-negotiable.

Some KAPAG members are unhappy over the six-month extension given to Bontoc as well as the provision in the agreement that the removal of the accumulated garbage in the dump site depends on technical studies to be conducted by the DENR and EMB.

KAPAG, however, accepted the decision after legal counsel and member Errol Comafay said the organization may conduct its own studies to bolster its claim that the non-removal of the garbage deposits in the dump site is an environmental hazard.

Dominic Sugguiyao, KAPAG member and a supervising environmental management specialist in the Kalinga Environment and Natural Resources,  said that according to the findings of the Bantox, an international anti-mercury crusader, the air above the dump site has high mercury levels which, according to him, means that the  earth and the bodies of water in and  near the dump site are also contaminated with mercury.

Sugguiyao  added that besides mercury, the accumulated garbage in the dump site likely contains  other toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.

Sugguiyao also said that even if the respondents rebuild the fallen retaining wall holding back the garbage from directly landing on the river, that would not guarantee the non-contamination of the Chico River because  the dump site has no impenetrable lining allowing the juices of the garbage to seep through the earth into nearby bodies of water.

Aside from conducting their own technical studies to prove the necessity of removing  the garbage deposits instead of covering it as provided in the agreement, KAPAG also intends to closely monitor the compliance of the respondents to the agreement as mandated by the court decision.