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RODRIGUEZ (Rizal) Mayor Pedro Cuerpo on Monday declared
there won’t be any garbage crisis in Metro Manila, as he
condemned the alleged dirty tricks and wild accusations
hurled at him by the lawyer of the sanitary-landfill
contractor whose attempt to open a 19-hectare garbage
dumpsite has been declared unauthorized and illegal by
the town government.
Cuerpo
lashed out at International SWIMS Inc. for resorting to
squid tactics by alleging corruption in the Rodriguez
landfill project after the 19-hectare garbage dumpsite
it wanted to operate was found to be lacking of the
required municipal licenses and permits and an
Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources.
Cuerpo
allayed media reportage of a possible garbage crisis as
he declared that the 14-hectare Montalban sanitary
landfill is operating round-the-clock to take in Metro
Manila’s solid waste.
He
admitted that the closure order issued by Rizal Gov.
Casimiro Ynares III and the provincial board on the
14-hectare landfill allegedly “because it was fully
utilized” caused initial problems, but these have since
been resolved by the Department of the Interior and
Local Government.
With the
landfill problem now faced by Metro Manila, the
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is
looking into the possibility of using private dumps and
is already considering a bidding for such dump, with its
operator required to collect the waste.
“The
MMDA can do that [bidding], and yes, that is possible,”
MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando said.
Fernando
added a public bidding is only one of the MMDA’s options
in its effort not to be held hostage by the present
quarrel between the Rodriguez, Rizal, mayor and the
Rizal governor that has resulted in the shutting down of
the Rodriguez landfill by the provincial government.
The dump
has been reopened pending the resolution of the tussle
over the town’s landfill and the provincial landfill
that is only open to waste collected from the province’s
residents.
Ynares
claimed the existing landfill has been found by the
provincial safety engineering consultants as already
“saturated and used up,” but Cuerpo challenged him to
see for himself that there is still a large area in the
14-hectare landfill that is available.
On
Thursday the Rizal government opened a new 19-hectare
landfill that abuts the shut-down garbage facility. Its
drawback for the metropolis is that it accepts only
garbage from the province.
Two of
the mayors in the eastern part of Metro Manila expressed
alarm over the problem. San Juan City Mayor Joseph
Victor Ejercito said that if the “war” between Cuerpo
and Ynares does not stop, then it would be hard for them
to manage the garbage of the city in the coming days.
This was
echoed by Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos Jr.,
saying the garbage situation in his area will worsen,
noting that the city does not have its own dump unlike
other cities of Metro Manila. “I don’t want to argue who
is right or wrong … I just hope that the problem will be
resolved soon.”
It may
be noted that on February 13, 2000, the MMDA invited
bids for a sanitary landfill that could handle at least
2,000 metric tons daily of Metro Manila’s garbage under
a build-own-operate (BOO) scheme. This was during the
time of Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati, who was then MMDA
chairman.
The
agency called for a public bidding after Congress passed
Republic Act 8749, or the Clean Air Act, prohibiting
incineration technology in municipal solid-waste
management, affecting the BOO contract for a
waste-to-energy project signed between Jancom and the
government, represented by the Presidential Task Force
on Solid-Waste Management.
On March
5, 1998, the BOO contract was submitted to
then-President Fidel Ramos for approval, but this was
too close to the end of his term, which expired without
him signing the contract. Ramos endorsed the contract to
his successor, President Joseph Estrada.
Seventeen companies responded to the invitation to bid
and five were prequalified. Eventually only two bidders
qualified—Pro-Environment Corp. (PEC) and Vivendi-Dizon
Mines.
PEC bid
the lowest with a tipping fee of $18.89 per metric ton
as against Vivendi-Dizon Mines’s $32 per metric ton.
However,
the MMDA again faced another dilemma when the Supreme
Court on January 30, 2002, ruled the Jancom contract,
despite its infirmities, is “valid but not effective
unless signed by the President.” By that time, President
Arroyo was the one in office.
Nothing
more has been heard about it since.
The
EcoWaste Coalition said the landfill reopening or use of
any other dumpsite is not a lasting solution and urged
that instead of looking for more dumpsites, government
should implement Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological
Solid-Waste Management Act of 2000.
“Hauling
Metro Manila’s garbage to Rodriguez or finding
alternative dumpsites in Bulacan, Laguna, Pampanga or
Tarlac will not solve the perennial garbage crisis. As
long as our national and local leaders remain fixated on
the obsolete ‘haul-and-dump’ approach, as long as the
barangays are not empowered to amply manage their
discards in a way that will not harm public health and
the environment, the metropolis will continue to remain
a victim of the garbage crisis year in, year out,” said
Romy Hidalgo of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Task Force
Dumps-Landfills. ---With
J. Mayuga |
