APUNG IRU rode the waters of the Pampanga River on the first day of his triduum last June 28, amid the splashy, frenzied devotional revelry of the faithful – and the flotsam and jetsam of Capampangan capulquirian. That’s the nadir of filthiness, in the mequeni language.
Yeah, the Pampanga River is in direst need of Apung Iru’s miracle to bring it back to even but a quarter of its once pristine glory. Having become the largest flowing dumpsite in the province.
No wonder really why the now lamented Jerry Pelayo’s vision of a Pampanga River cruise sputtered at its very launch. Only coprophiliacs would find delight in river rafting with human wastes floating all around them.
No, Governor Lilia G. Pineda was not at Apung Iru’s fluvial procession – not parade as some people lacking in religious instruction and limited in lexicon put it – but she is well aware of the garbaged river and its tributaries, as well as the dump-sited municipalities.
On Wednesday, the governor was reported to have “vowed to give a ‘renewed effort and commitment’ in solving the garbage problem in Pampanga” in her second term.
Even as she admitted to have not given enough effort in helping solve the waste problem, having focused on “too many things such as education, health and agriculture” in her first term.
For starters, Nanay Gov was quoted as disclosing that the provincial government will purchase a land in Porac town to be used as a materials recovery facility (MRF) and will push waste segregation at source with the people being made “responsible when disposing off (sic) their waste.”
“I will pressure more the mayors and the barangay captains. They must be more aggressive and dedicated.” So the media reports quoted Pineda.
Indeed, the garbage burden lies on the shoulders of the mayors and barangay chairs, which they however nonchalantly simply shrugged off.
Sorry, our dearest Governor, but It may take more than gubernatorial pressure to spur the local officials to action.
Why, weren’t many of the Pampanga LGUs haled to the Ombudsman precisely to answer for various violations of the laws protecting the environment?
It was in February this year that the Alliance for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL) petitioned Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to file administrative and criminal cases against the (ir)responsible officials.
Attached as evidence to the petition were the findings of the Environmental Management Bureau from on-site investigations it conducted with the ADCL in the cities of San Fernando, Angeles and Mabalacat and the towns of Guagua, Porac, Sasmuan, Apalit, Macabebe, Masantol, Minalin and, Sto. Tomas.
The EMB report showed that with the exception of Angeles City, all the other local governments “were found in violation of Republic Act Nos. 9003, 9275 and 8749 for the operation of dumpsites directly adjacent to water bodies and where open burning is rampant.”
The EMB located these open dumpsites in Barangays Sapang Balen in Mabalacat City, Manuali and Mitla in Porac, Sta. Lucia and Sta. Monica in Sasmuan, Sulipan in Apalit, San Vicente in Macabebe, Bebe Anac in Masantol, Sta. Catalina in Minalin and San Matias in Sto. Tomas.
Notable in the clear and present danger it posed to public health, the EMB said, was an area near the anti-lahar megadike in Barangay San Rafael in Guagua, where an operating open dumpsite served as “disposal area for healthcare wastes.”
In 2011, the EMB had already issued to the respondent LGUs notices ordering the closure of their open dumpsites. But as it found out, there was “no indication of an attempt to rehabilitate the open dumpsite, such as soil covering, slope grading and effort to make it off limits to the public through fencing of the whole area.”
ADCL President Alfonso Dobles Jr. who filed the petition before the Ombudsman lamented that “despite what the Constitution and the (environmental) laws guarantee, the heart-breaking injustice to the environment and to the community continues.”
And it is the mayors and barangay captains that are specifically mandated to be directly in charge of the implementation of these environmental laws.
There’s the bulls eye for the governor to target with her “renewed effort and commitment” to solve the garbage problem of Pampanga.
No kid gloves treatment to the erring LGUs, Nanay. What they need is a hard, swift KITA – kicks in their asses.
As that truism holds, spare the rod and spoil the child. And spoiled brats these LGUs seem to have become.
No less than Art Punsalan, head of the Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office (PGENRO), attested to that, thus: “The governor is supposed to be just a supporting act.
What is happening is that she is the one leading the campaign. Worse, the governor is not getting much cooperation from many officials.”
‘Nay, pamalasbasan yo pu.
