Students, teachers complain of Baguio's trash problem

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines  – The ugly head of Baguio’s garbage problem sticks out anew with more than 300 students, faculty members and non-teaching staff of the Philippine Science High School CAR campus in Irisan barangay complaining they are virtually within an open dump site.

“Even you cannot endure the stench,”  Conrado Rotor Jr., Phil. Science High School director described the air around the newly built four-storey,  16-classroom building of the government-run secondary school servicing intellectually-gifted and talented Filipino children in the Cordillera and the rest of Northern Luzon.

In several times of the day, when classes are on-going,  truckloads upon truckloads of garbage are dumped less than 30 meters from the school. 

"Buti kung everyday,  inaalis nila, pero hindi.”  Rotor said,  while reminding that the virtually open dumpsite was supposedly a “staging area” only of Baguio’s garbage before it is brought to Capas, Tarlac.

“A solution is in the pipeline,” said Engr. Romeo Concio of the General Services Office of the city, adding that a chemical will be used to douse off the nauseating stench.

“But imagine an open dump site right beside a school?,”  the school official said as he cites the school hosts 330 students from all over Cordillera and the rest of Northern Luzon, 31 faculty members and 14 non-academic personnel.

The virtual open dump site, which the city government has been using as “transfer facility”, still sits along the 3.7 hectare land appropriated by the government.

“We already moved our classes opening from June 10 to June 17 to accommodate some adjustments like that of the foul smell that can affect the students and everyone,”  Rotor said.

A series of meetings between Phil Science High School officials and Maypr Mauricio Domogan were held.

Benguet villagers had  sued Baguio via a Writ of Kalikasan after six were killed in a mammoth trash slide at the Irisan dumpsite in August 2011.

Domogan has continuously vowed  to find a solution to the garbage problem. The city, however, has yet to find a suitable area  to build a sanitary landfill.

Measures, according to the city government,  have been instituted before the classes started.  This includes a cement barrier to prevent garbage employees from reaching the school.

Baguio churns out a minimum of 200 tons of garbage a day.