CAPAS, Tarlac — “We are contemplating to file a case, if we find sufficient legal basis, and seek the issuance of a Writ of Kalikasan because the closure of the landfill may cause disaster in our waste management and there are no clear guidelines on how the area will be decommissioned as a landfill.”
Thus, Mayor Roseller B. Rodriguez warned the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and the Clark Development Corp. of legal actions the local government unit will take if the two government agencies “remain adamant” in their decision to close by October the Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill in Capas town.
Operated by the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC), the engineered sanitary landfill in Kalangitan currently caters to more than 120 cities and municipalities in Central Luzon, as well as a few LGUs in Benguet and Pangasinan.
It’s 25-year contract signed with the CDC is expiring in October and both CDC and BCDA had manifested to the MCWMC that it would not be extended.
Supported by the Capas Sangguniang Bayan, Rodriguez urged the BCDA and CDC to extend the utilization of the Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill noting its “closure will be confronted with the problem of waste management not only in Capas but the whole Central Luzon and parts of Northern Luzon regions.”
“There is not a single sanitary landfill that is compliant and could accommodate the daily waste disposal of both regions. It will definitely take years before such a facility could efficiently accommodate such huge tonnage and volume of daily wastes,” asserted Rodriguez.
Furthered the mayor: “The collateral effect of this irresponsible and disjointed plan of BCDA is that we will be losing revenue amounting to more or less P25 million a year in terms of taxes and internal revenue allotments derived from the operations of the landfill including savings in waste management disposal expenses.”
At Monday’s hearing at the Capas SB hall, the BCDA represented by one Daryll Garcia had no clear alternative to the impending closure of the Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill.
On the other hand, the CDC apparently snubbed the SB hearing as it did not send any representative.
Earlier, more than 120 LGUs in Central Luzon specifically from Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, and parts of Pangasinan and Benguet, warned that the closure of the Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill would “surely cause severe environmental and health and crisis.”
Millions of residents in both of Central and Northern Luzon currently availing themselves of the services of an engineered waste disposal facility that they can call their own will soon face a widespread garbage crisis that would quickly result in sanitation and health problems including environmental issues. This, expressed by stakeholders in earlier petition letters to the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources.
Waste disposals of nearly all business establishments including malls, hospitals, industries operating in cities and provinces in Central Luzon are being serviced by the Kalangitan landfill.
Rodriguez, who attended the SB hearing, lamented “lack of planning” on the part of the BCDA and CDC.
“It is not a question of whether BCDA or CDC is anti-progress but it’s a question of lack of planning or misprioritization of program,” he said. “BCDA or CDC cannot justify why they are closing the landfill because until now wala naman sila sinasabi specific project ano ang gagawin sa area.”
The mayor revealed that “there is proponent who intends to build a landfill in Barangay Bueno but the problem is — at present the said barangay is classified under our CLUP (Comprehensive Land Use Plan) as an agro-tourism area.”
More than 5,000 tons of wastes are being brought on a daily basis to the first engineered and environmentally compliant sanitary landfill in the country.
