Tarlac landfill to stop accepting Angeles garbage

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Trucks hauling garbage from across this city will have no place to dump it starting next week.

This, after the management of Central Luzon’s lone sanitary landfill in Tarlac announced it would no longer accept garbage from this city due to payables amounting to more than P64 million.

In a letter addressed to Mayor Francis Nepomuceno, Armando Garcia, president of the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC), said, “We wish to formally advice the city government of Angeles that effective June 8, 2009, we shall no longer haul and receive any waste coming from the city.”

“Since August 2007, our company has been faithfully serving the city government for its solid waste management services,” he said.

“Our record shows that we have hauled 5,838 truckloads and accepted 57,722 metric tons of city waste coming from your 31 barangays. Of this volume, only 28,371 metric tons and 2,543 hauls have been paid, leaving an account receivable of P64,668,167,” Garcia added.

He said they have had several meetings with city administrator Mark Sison and other city officials over the “ballooning account,” but there has been no “quick action.”

Garcia recalled that the MCWMC, as an act of “goodwill,” earlier had limited the volume of garbage from Angeles City from 14 truckloads to only four.

“But our goodwill has not been reciprocated with serious and expeditious action on your part,” Garcia said in his letter.

Vice Mayor Vicky Vega said the city government is apparently cash-strapped, but vowed to look into how the city’s P30-million allocation for garbage management was spent.

Vega lamented that many residents have dumped their garbage into creeks because of the problem with the MCWMC.

Vega said she is checking reports that local garbage is being brought to an illegal open dump in Barangays Margot and Anunas at night under heavy security.