PORAC, Pampanga – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) has reiterated its opposition to the planned sanitary landfill here before the municipal council.
In a manifesto read to the sangguniang bayan last week, the PGKM said the proposed 10-hectare sanitary landfill straddling barangays Mitla and Mancatian here is “counterproductive.”
It also described the proposed sanitary landfill as “anti- environment, anti-progress, anti-development, anti-labor and most of all anti-people.”
PGKM chair Ruperto Cruz said the benefi ciaries of the sanitary landfi ll project “are truckers who deliver sand in Manila and on the way back wants to make extra money by hauling garbage” allegedly to be dumped in the proposed sanitary landfill here.
“We are creating a monster in Pampanga by ferrying garbage from Manila to Porac,” he said.
Cruz even compared the truckers to the notorious “agaw lupa (land grabbers).”
“These truckers are like agaw lupa. The agaw lupa are a menace to Porac,” he said.
Cruz said because of alleged land grabbers, lahar victims who were resettled at the Tokwing Resettlement site here have yet to acquire the titles to their properties because of the machinations of a certain lawyer.
The lawyer should be declared persona non grata in Porac, he said. Meanwhile, Cruz said the alleged polyurethane plastic lining of the sanitary landfill could be torn due to earthquakes and contaminate the aquifer.
The intensity of the earthquake that jolted Luzon recently could tear apart the plastic liner, he said.
The proposed sanitary landfill is reportedly being pushed by powerful politicians including a former Supreme Court justice and a politician in the second district.
It was reported that a company called Ecoprotect, reportedly headed by one Arind Tan as president, was able to obtain an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and approval from outgoing Mayor Condralito Dela Cruz and the previous sangguniang bayan here.
But Cruz said the PGKM will not back down. “if the government will not stop this landfill; San Fernando, Bacolor, Sta. Rita and others will join the rally that we will spearhead along with concerned citizens, the religious sector, Green Peace environmentalists, non-government organizations, students and subdivision owners will take part along with the people of Porac.”
It can be recalled that it was the PGKM that mobilized protests against the piggery farms here a few years ago, culminating in a massive rally led by then San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Pablo David.
The stench emanating from the piggeries has since been controlled.
