Environmental case unresolved: Mt Prov, Bontoc execs work out dump snags

By Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province – A trash site for this capital town, the object of a case filed by Kalinga officials-- still hounds provincial and town officials.

This, as Gov. Leonard Mayaen, Bontoc mayor PascualSacgaca and vice mayor William Aspilan met barangay officials and lot owners of a prospective landfill to resolve issues on waste disposal considering Kalinga officials charged in their petition garbage from this town had been thrown and flowed to their province via the Chico River.

A pending question hounds the municipality where to put waste with the Caluttit dump site up for closing in accordance with RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 which prohibits open waste dumping.

This, following a case filed for the issuance of a writ of kalikasan filed by the Kalinga Action Group Against Pollution against the Bontoc and provincial government units for having allegedly failed to prepare and implement sound and comprehensive Local Government Solid Waste Management Plans as mandated by RA 9003.

The case filed at the Court of Appeals October last year charges both LGUs for alleged indiscriminate dumping of waste along the Chico River polluting irrigation waters that flows to vast rice fields of Tabuk and downstream Cagayan and Isabela. The case is still unresolved.

Sacgaca cited a lot in Faliling hill for a prospective land fill identified for purchase by the LGU of Bontoc to replace the protested dumpsite currently used by the residents of Bontoc in the Poblacion area.

Lot owners however protested use of their lots to as land fill site citing environmental reasons.

William Aspilan said Poblacion barangay officials shall meet soont to identify another lot.

Mayaen said the provincial government shall provide support for building of an identified landfill for the municipality.

In said KAPAG also charged Secretary Ramon Paje and regional director Clarence Baguilat of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for being responsible for the enforcement of environmental laws and the Environmental Management Bureau officers for not exercising pollution prevention and control.