La Trinidad execs push closure order vs chicken dung traders

  

By Primo Agatep

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The municipal council here has unanimously passed a resolution supporting the mayor's closure order against fertilizer establishments illegally operating in this capital town.

La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda issued closure orders last May 28 against two local businessmen, Nora Lagadeo and Franklin Yubos, traders of chicken dung as fertilizer.

The two businessmen did not have business permits from La Trinidad, using the boundary dispute between La Trinidad and neighboring town Tublay.

 “The issuance of a closure order to that identified area is very appropriate, the fact that the area is situated in the municipality of La Trinidad. The area has not been a subject of a boundary dispute between adjacent municipalities,” stated Resolution No.120-2018.

“Allegedly, some chicken dung dealers are using boundary dispute to advance such vested interest, doing chicken dung trading within the territorial jurisdiction of La Trinidad. Such claim does not exist in actual and in form,” the resolution further stated.

Salda ’s orders were based on the report by the Business Permits and Licensing Section of La Trinidad that Lagadeo and Yubos were operating without the necessary business permits.

Salda’s order was also anchored on a court’s decision declaring the trading and storage of chicken dung within the municipality as a public nuisance per se, which was affirmed by Court of Appeals.

The order was also supported by Administrative Order No 008 Series 2010, which expressly prohibits the sale, disposal, and storage of chicken dung in the municipality. The administrative order has not been repealed nor modified.

Myrna Bagano, head of the Business Permits and Licensing Section, also reported that her office has acted and dispatched the order of the mayor, stopping the business operations of Lagadeo and Yubos.

 The closure was implemented Tuesday. -- PNA