Malolos officials, residents fight over dump

MALOLOS CITY – Officials and residents of this Bulacan capital continued to trade barbs over the city’s 13-year-old dump in Barangay Mambog where local folk have barred the entry of garbage trucks.

City administrator Anastacio Borlongan accused Mambog officials of failing to carry out a solid waste management program, and the residents, too, for not segregating their household waste.

But Lauro Atienza and Reynaldo Carpio, incoming and outgoing Mambog chairman, respectively, belied the accusations.

They added that they had told the city government before the recent barangay polls that the dump had to be closed for damaging fishponds and causing diseases among children.

They claimed that the city’s dump and material recovery facility lack an environmental compliance certificate. City officials denied this.

Last Friday, Mambog folk barricaded the dump to demand its closure. Residents of other villages – Matimbo, Taal, Bangkal and Niugan – are joining the move, vowing to prevent the entry of dump trucks unless they carry segregated waste.