Bacoor folk want to use old dumpsite

Residents of Bacoor, Cavite will soon file a petition with appropriate government offices and agencies to allow them to temporarily use at least two hectares of an old dumpsite in their town while they are awaiting the construction of a new garbage facility in another area within 90 days.

At present, the petition is being passed around the town’s 73 barangays for signatures.

Bacoor Mayor Jessie Castillo said the old dumpsite in Villa Esperanza, Barangay Molino III was rehabilitated but closed way ahead of the 2003 deadline set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The new five-hectare facility being developed in Barangay Malipay, he said, may be available in 90 days, barring inclement weather.

"My hands are tied," he said. "We cannot collect garbage because I don’t have a place to dump it in now. We closed the dumpsite in Villa Esperanza as we had promised my constituents, thinking that we could ready a new one. But legal problems kept setting us back."

Apparently motivated by their mayor’s handicap, the townsfolk took it upon themselves to petition the DENR, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan to allow them to re-use the dumpsite in Villa Esperanza for at least 90 days even without the required environmental permit.