Cerilles urges Metro candidates: Address garbage disposal problem

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Antonio Cerilles urged yesterday all politicians running for public office in the May elections to include in their political agenda the issue of how to solve the perennial garbage problem in Metro Manila.

Cerilles issued the call even as he vowed to help raise the solid waste management issue to convince the people to vote only for those who show concern for the protection of the environment.

"We intend to raise this (solid waste management) as a political issue so that the people out there will only elect those people who have an agenda on environment" Cerilles said.

Cerilles said that the unabated dumping of garbage is a growing problem in the country due to lack of proper waste management of concerned local government units (LGUs).

"Unless those elected to local posts include solid waste management as a priority, the problem of garbage will become worse in the country" Cerilles said.

Cerilles said that he will zero in on the problem of increasing open dumpsites in the country as he urged the LGUs to stop their use.

Earlier, Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) director Peter Anthony Abaya junked the use of more open dumpsites to address the problem of waste disposal in the country as it vowed to charge those who will violate the order.

Abaya said that the LGUs should limit the use of the existing open dumpsites to ease the garbage crisis which is expected to worsen once the San Mateo sanitary landfill closes operations on Dec. 31 this year.

He said that the Mayors also have until Dec. 31, 2001 to transform their open dumpsites into controlled dumpsites, where the LGUs are compelled to compact their garbage and cover it with soil upon delivery to the dumpsites.