Rizal residents to close landfill

Residents and officials of San Mateo, Rizal led by Gov. Casimiro "Yto" Yñares will start barricading the road leading to the San Mateo sanitary landfill starting Dec. 30 to ensure the closure of the said landfill.

This was disclosed by lawyer Eduardo Torres during a recent congressional investigation conducted by the House committee on ecology chaired by Misamis Oriental Rep. Augusto Baculio.

Torres, a representative of Yñares, said that the closure of San Mateo landfill is "irrevocable."

"We are presently discussing alternatives for the garbage of the province. No more opening of the landfill," Torres said.

Torres said that the provincial government of Rizal is also contemplating on establishing its own dumpsite in Baras, Rizal.

He said that Antipolo is also eyeing its own dumpsite in Barangay Luis.

"Governor Yñares has already declared that after Dec. 31, it is up for the Metro Manila local government units to look for their own dumping area," Torres said.

Torres said that not even an order from President Estrada, also a close friend of Yñares, to extend the operation of the San Mateo sanitary landfill "will affect its closure come Dec. 31."

He cited that among other pressing reasons why the San Mateo sanitary landfill should be closed as scheduled, are the environmental problems, poor management of the landfill, generation and proliferation of bad odor.

"Had it not been for these reasons, the provincial government of Rizal will not oppose the extension of the operation of the landfill," Torres said.

Torres noted that a study conducted by a Finland-based environment expert revealed that the San Mateo sanitary landfill has long-term negative effects on the environment even after its closure.

The study of the Finnish environment expert revealed that leachates stay for 200 years in the landfill site even if it is already closed. "While methane gas has its own risky effect which lasts for 50 years," Torres said.

Members of the House committee on ecology have suggested to the Rizal provincial officials to allow the extension of the operation of the San Mateo sanitary landfill by another six months, or until June 2001, to enable the government to prepare its alternative.

Earlier, Peter Anthony Abaya, director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), said that the EMB study discovered that the San Mateo sanitary landfill is a "fire hazard" because of the high level of methane gas.

Abaya has recommended the immediate relocation of residents near the area to prevent them from being caught in another tragedy like what had happened at the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City, which killed more than 200 people during a trash-slide.