South Koreagives ultimatum on $43M Baguio-Benguet dumpsite

By Dexter A. See 

BAGUIO CITY – The South Korean government has given the city government and the provincial government of Benguet six months to complete the required endorsements and documents for the construction of the $43 million engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) in Barangay Ampucao, Itogon, Benguet or the grant will be diverted for the same project of the Metro Manila Development Authority.

            

Pastor Hung Ju Shin, liaison officer of the South Korean government for the Ampucao ESL project, said the funds for the environment-friendly dump facility is ready to be released provided concerned local governments will formally endorse the project to facilitate the release of the required Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).

            

“We are tired of politics being employed against us,” Pastor Shin said, adding that the Ampucao ESL project already passed the initial feasibility study undertaken by a South Korean University and soil tests done by experts both from the Philippine and South Korean governments.

            

The Ampucao ESL project is situated in a 25-hectare property around 27 to 30 kilometers southeast of Baguio City and could be reached by a 40-minute drive.

            

According to Shin, the ESL project will be fully operational the next two and a half years but project proponents claimed they could put up a temporary residual containment area within the property to accommodate the huge volume of garbage from the Baguio and Benguet areas.

           

Aside from working out the putting up of the ESL project, Shin urged city and provincial governmentsto  educate their constituents on the proper disposal of their garbage or the segregation of waste at source in order to significantly reduce the volume of waste to be dumped in the state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility.

           

 “In Korea, our government took 15 years to teach our people how to appropriately manage their household waste, thus, Baguio and Benguet officials must not be disappointed by the low compliance of their constituents to the segregation of garbage at source,” Shin said.

           

He added local governments must also provide the necessary receptacles in conspicuous places in their respective areas of jurisdiction so that people will be informed and trained to properly dump their waste.

           

 “We were able to establish that the Ampucao area was the most feasible site where the ESL will be constructed, thus, we are working hard to facilitate the use of the grant for the project but if nothing will be significantly achieved in the next months, the South Korean government will be forced to transfer the grant to the MMDA for a similar garbage disposal project,” Shin said, adding that Baguio and the neighboring towns of La Trinidad, Sablan, Itogon, Tuba and Tublay will greatly benefit from the operation of the multi-purpose ESL project when it will be completed.

            

Shin cited the initial cooperation shown by local officials of Baguio City, Itogon, barangay Ampucao and the provincial government of Benguet to pursue the realization of the ESL project since it is the most feasible way by which they could comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.