Mayor vows to close plant that retrieves oil from used tires

NORZAGARAY, Bulacan – Officials here vowed to shut down a company that specializes on oil extraction and recovery from used tires after residents filed a complaint citing health reasons.

As this developed, the Environmental Management Bureau Central Luzon said they will issue a notice of violation against Meng Hong Trading owned by a certain Tomas Hao, after an inspection on Thursday.

Mayor Feliciano Legazpi of this town told The STAR that they will shut down the operations of the Meng Hong Trading despite alleged arrangements with barangay officials that it will be shut down by the end of August.

“We cannot compromise the health of our constituents, doktor din kasi ako,” Legazpi told The STAR in an interview on Thursday afternoon.

A physician by profession before entering politics, Legazpi said that he received complaints from residents of Sitio Diliman, Barangay Partida here citing the dangerous effects on their health of the operations of Meng Hong Trading.

He said that some children living within the vicinity of Meng Hong Trading may soon catch disease called primary complex due to exposure to foul odor emanating from the facilities’ operation and carbon ash that falls within the area.

Legazpi said the municipal government issued a business permit to Meng Hong Trading on the arrangement that it will secure necessary permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, but until now, company officials failed to submit any paper, thus they did not issue a business permit this year to the company.