Garbage haulers nabbed for illegal dumping

Eight employees of a garbage contractor in Caloocan City were arrested and three of their dump trucks impounded the other day after they were caught illegally dumping garbage in Valenzuela City.

Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian said the offenders were workers of Fel-Gene Construction owned by contractor Felino Eugenio.

Legal Officer Vicente Bonaobra II said a case of illegal dumping of garbage has been filed before the City Prosecutors’ Office against Rizaldy de los Reyes, Jun Corpuz, Antonio Bayani, Romeo Castor, Louie Marvilla, July Mosa, Manuel Mosa and James Bisual.

Impounded at the City Action Center premises were the contractor’s dump trucks (UFT-230, UUG-729 and WGU 981).

Gatchalian said that the suspects were charged with violating City Ordinance 95-03 which prohibits the transport of any waste material coming from other local government units into the city.

The mayor added that the suspects also violated provisions of the RA 9003, otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. Section 48 of the law prohibits the operation of waste management facilities without an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

In a sworn complaint affidavit, City Hall, represented by Waste Management Office (WMO) chief Engr. Rommel Pondevida and Bonaobra, said that at around noon last Monday, city Task Force Disiplina received a call from residents of Sto. Rosario street in Barangay Mapulang Lupa about dump trucks from Caloocan City dumping waste in the area.

A team from the City Legal Office, the WMO and the city police went to the area to verify the report and caught the suspects in the act of transferring waste material from one mini-truck to a larger one at the site used as transfer station.

The suspects failed to present an ECC or any pertinent document justifying their action.

"We are sure Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri is not aware of what these people are doing. The problem is that these waste materials could be anything. Who knows if these are toxic or hospital waste. When transferred to our place, it becomes our responsibility. We have to stop activities like this," Gatchalian said.

Echiverri, in a phone interview, confirmed Gatchalian’s statement saying he did not know this. He said he will soon be calling the attention of the city’s garbage haulers to prevent a repeat of this violation.

"We will give them a warning initially. A repeat of the same violation would constrain us to revoke our contract with them," Echiverri said. He said Caloocan’s contract with Fel-gene specifies that the latter will collect the city’s garbage and has the obligation to dump the same at legitimate sites.