Writ of Kalikasan over Irisan dump revisited

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

Is it too late the hero, or better late than never?

Seven years after the Irisan trashslide buried alive six Tuba residents on August 27, 2011 and six years after a Writ of Kalikasan was issued in 2012 against the city government due to that incident, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Benguet is supporting the LGU of Tuba in its request for the City of Baguio to discontinue using the Irisan garbage dumpsite.

Earlier, the municipal council of Tuba, Benguet cited in a resolution that the City of Baguio “continues to use the former open dumpsite as proven by the foul smell emanating from the site and the leachate flowing from the area.”

Tuba SB wrote in the resolution that such act is “a blatant violation of the Writ of Kalikasan” even as it further said that City of Baguio employees who were present in a joint inspection claimed that “the court allowed the local government of Baguio to operate despite the Writ of Kalikasan”.

A Writ of Kalikasan is a legal remedy provided by the Supreme Court to ensure that a citizen’s right to a clean and healthy environment is protected.

During the onslaught of Typhoon Mina on August 27, 2011; some 30,000 tons of wastes from the Irisan garbage dumpsite cascaded 200 meters into a gulley and down to Km. 5, Asin Road, burying alive four people and two children.

The trashslide also pushed away around 20 residential houses above and below Asin Road at Km. 5 and blocked traffic for at least one week.

This moved Benguet Congressman Ronald M. Cosalan, residents of Asin Road in Barangay Tadiangan, Tuba; provincial board members of Benguet and La Union, officials of Aringay, La Union and National Artist for Visual Arts Benedicto Cabrera to file a petition for the issuance of a Writ of Kalikasan against the City of Baguio.

Surprisingly, the officialdom of Tuba took no part in petitioning against the continuous use of the Irisan dumpsite by Baguio City despite the tragic death of six people.

Reacting to a news report last week regarding the support of the Benguet SP to Tuba’s resolution against the city’s continuous use of the Irisan dumpsite, Rep. Cosalan wondered why Tuba is acting up only now when it should have done so at the time of the tragic death of six people.

Rep. Cosalan said, when they filed for the Writ of Kalikasan after the deadly trashslide in 2011, “it should be noted that the then entire municipal council and municipal mayor refused to sign the petition. Only the barangay officials of Tadiangan signed the petition.”

“No credit should be given the then local officials of Tuba who were afraid to displease the Baguio officials by signing the petition for the issuance of a Writ of Kalikasan,” Cosalan said.

In a news report following the petition for the issuance of a Writ of Kalikasan in 2012, Tuba officials then said that they did not take part in signing the petition because they have taken on good faith Baguio’s rehabilitation plans for the Irisan dump.

This has been proven wrong six years later today when the present Tuba officials, some of whom were sitting as councilors then, saw with their own eyes during their inspection that the Irisan dumpsite is continuously used for activities related to garbage disposal.   

Tuba officials cited lately in their resolution that in a joint inspection on April 11, 2018, they saw the “continued dumping of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste by the city and the leachate from the environmental recycling system (ERS) was visibly flowing directly to the drainage canal.”

“The expression of support for Tuba’s resolution by the Benguet SP should be addressed to the DENR that is supposed to strictly monitor the implementation of the Writ of Kalikasan which I asked from the Supreme Court against the city and officials of Baguio,” Cosalan further said.

Regular monitoring of the Irisan dumpsite was ordered by the Supreme Court to the DENR, copy furnished the LGUs of Baguio, Tuba and Cosalan’s office.

However, in contrast to the Tuba SB resolution, Regional Director Reynaldo S. Digamo of the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau said in his second semester monitoring report that the City of Baguio is in compliance with the Writ of Kalikasan and continuing mandamus.

In its report, the EMB official stated that the facility is still closed for dumping and is not receiving any new collected waste and it is still secured with its perimeter fences which are thickly covered by vegetation.

In earlier news reports, city employees admitted that the Irisan dumpsite is presently being used as a treatment site for the city’s organic fertilizer project as approved by the DENR despite the Writ of Kalikasan and continuing mandamus issued by the appellate court that ordered the City of Baguio to “permanently cease and desist from operating the Irisan dumpsite.”

The SC ordered the city government “to cease and desist from making use of the Irisan dump, either as a temporary holding area or as a dumping or controlled area for any and all kinds of solid waste.”