CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Gov. Lilia “Baby” Pineda yesterday called on her counterparts in Central Luzon to push for the creation of a regional landfill aimed at making the “first big step” in solving the garbage problem.
Pineda said the location of Pampanga in the region “makes it a catch basin not just for flood water but also for garbage,” notably from Aurora and Nueva Ecija.
At the height of recent Typhoons Egay and Falcon, Pineda made an inspection of major river channels and saw for herself how piles of garbage coming from other provinces compounded the flooding problem in Pampanga which affected 17 towns and this city last month.
She plans to invite the governors of Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Bulacan, Tarlac and Zambales in a meeting to draw up the plan for the creation of landfill “at the most convenient area” in the region. She added that they will invite regional officials of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Environment and Management Bureau (EMB).
Pineda said local governments face a dilemma in the disposal of solid waste at private landfills due to limitation of budget.
The first-term governor said a landfill owned by government serving seven provinces will drastically cut the tipping fee. She added that a law should require all towns and villages in the provinces to use the regional sanitary landfill.
“More importantly, it will solve the garbage problem in the region with our collective efforts ,” said Pineda in statements released by the Provincial Information Office (PIO).
In her first months in office, Pineda organized seminars among barangay and municipal officials focused on the application of waste segregation to reduce waste thrown at privately-owned sanitary landfills.
Mayor Oscar Tetangco Jr. of Apalit and Mayor Jun Naguit of Sto. Tomas started a “no segregation, no collection policy” in their respective towns. They established Material Recovery Facility (MRF) to effectively launch their program in support of the Pineda administration’s program to reduce the volume of waste.
