WITH the issue of payment for the use of the
14-hectare Rodriguez sanitary landfill still unresolved, the
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is currently
looking at alternative dumpsites for Metro Manila’s garbage.
MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando said among the
possible sites is the 18-hectare landfill in Norzagaray, Bulacan
which he said has already secured an environmental compliance
certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources.
Fernando recently attended the opening of the
landfill located at Barangay Doña Remedios Trinidad to ensure
that the facility is prepared to accept Metro Manila’s garbage
should the Montalban dumpsite be closed. He said the MMDA is
also looking at similar facilities in Tanza, Navotas; San Pedro,
Laguna, and Clark, Pampanga to serve as secondary landfills.
During last year’s row on garbage fees
between the Rodriguez municipal government and the Rizal
provincial government, Makati and San Juan began using the
Navotas facility, Quezon City used the Payatas dumpsite
exclusively, and Parañaque used the Laguna landfill.
The 11.3-hectare, P348.70-million Navotas
landfill can accommodate 950 metric tons daily under a 15-year
garbage disposal plan. It is accessible mostly by watercraft
from either the ports of Manila Bay or through the fishpond
channels from the Obando public market, and also through the
Pinagkabalian bridge in Dampalit, Malabon. The facility has a
disposal site, landing craft transport and marine loading
transfer station.
The use by Metro Manila’s 16 cities and
Pateros town of the Montalban landfill to dispose of some 35
percent of the 8,000 metric tons of garbage generated daily has
been imperiled by Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo’s demand that the
MMDA pre-pay it or he will bar dump trucks from the area.
Cuerpo took this stand despite the Department
of Justice ruling last Feb. 4 that Rodriguez cannot collect fees
from garbage trucks entering the town because by collecting fees
from a national government agency, the local government unit is
indirectly imposing local taxes on the national government.
Cuerpo, who has appealed the DOJ ruling,
insisted that he has to do the right thing to protect his
constituents because they have suffered enough from the stench
of the garbage and have not been paid since September 2007.
The MMDA itself has sought a ruling from the
Makati regional trial court on which between Rodriguez town or
Rizal province should be paid for the use of the Rodriguez
landfill.
The MMDA spends an average of P1 billion yearly for its solid
waste management disposal program. Rodriguez, whose annual
budget is P430 million, sources P66 million of these from the
MMDA’s yearly garbage fees. – Ashzel Hachero
