Cavite groups protest plans for new landfill

TRECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite — An alliance of 14 organizations here is up in arms against reported plans of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to dump Metro Manila’s garbage in the province.

The Cavite Green Coalition aired their protest even as Gov. Ayong Maliksi has begun consultations with residents, particularly with non-government groups, on what waste management technology they want to adopt in the province.

The coalition reacted to reports that MMDA chairman Benjamin Abalos Jr. was striking a new deal with Jancom, an Australian company, to develop a sanitary landfill in Magallanes town.

This developed as Abalos confirmed yesterday that the MMDA was a step closer to finding a sanitary landfill for Metro Manila in the next six months. No site was mentioned.

Abalos has all but confirmed the awarding of contracts to Jancom Environment Corp. and the Pro-Environment Consortium. The only unresolved major issue is the project cost.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in a study in the mid-90s, identified the Magallanes site as a water recharge area.

Fr. Gilbert Urubio, parish priest of Saint Joseph, Alfonso town, said during the First Cavite Ecology Summit in Dasmariñas town over the weekend, that the proposed MMDA mega-landfill will further pollute sources of drinking water of both Cavite and Batangas.

Urubio said a panel of experts convened by former Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Antonio Cerilles ignored the JICA findings.

This eventually led to the issuance of an environmental compliance certificate to the Eurasian Company on Waste Management and Environmental Services (ECWES) for the landfill in Magallanes town, Urubio said.

ECWES, however, pulled out of the project due to the strong opposition from Caviteños as well as technical and financial constraints.

Urubio said Caviteños still recall their sad experience with the landfill in Carmona town during the early 1990s, where the sludge had polluted rivers and springs in the area. The landfill’s collection pond overflowed during the rainy season, and the sludge found its way to the Laguna de Bay.

However, Alma Tuason, Maliksi’s public affairs consultant, clarified that the provincial government has neither received any communications from the MMDA nor Jancom on the reopening of talks for the Magallanes landfill plan.

Tuason said Maliksi was still consulting Caviteños on what waste disposal system should be adopted in the province.

The MMDA has reportedly found an open dumpsite in Barangay San Antonio, San Pedro, Laguna. — With Marvin Sy