‘They are just doing their job’

Suspended Rodriguez, Rizal Mayor Pedro Cuerpo admitted yesterday that the two men arrested Thursday at the town’s controversial landfill were municipal employees, but he vehemently denied that they were “extorting money” from garbage haulers.

He said Reginaldo Banzagales and Christopher Agramon were actually collecting coupons issued to garbage haulers to see to it that the municipal government is not short-changed in the number of garbage haulers dumping Metro Manila’s waste at the landfill.

“They are just doing their job,” said Cuerpo as he called on the police to release Banzagales and Agramon.

On Thursday, Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent Ricardo Padilla said they were poised to file necessary charges against Banzagales and Agramon for allegedly extorting money from garbage haulers.

Padilla said the two demanded tipping fees in exchange for dumping garbage at the 19-hectare landfill being operated by the provincial government.        – Non Alquitran