A MAKATI regional trial court has set aside its earlier preliminary injunction barring the Rizal provincial government and the Rodriguez municipal government from preventing the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority from dumping garbage at the 14-hectare Rodriguez, Rizal sanitary landfill.

Judge Napoleon Inuturan said that upon review, the court found valid Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo’s position that the court order cannot be enforced in his town because it is outside the National Capital Region and the territorial jurisdiction of the same court.

The MMDA had complained against Cuerpo’s impounding of several of its dump trucks in seeking the preliminary injunction. Yesterday, the agency said it is prepared to contest the matter anew in court while assuring Metro Manilans that the decision will not result in another garbage crisis.

Latest reports received by the MMDA said garbage trucks are not being barred from using the landfill.

The MMDA’s lawyer Emmanuel de Castro said if the Rizal government decides to enforce the court order and bar them from the landfill, they will immediately petition the Makati court for a temporary restraining order.

Metro Manila generates more than 22,000 cubic meters of garbage daily. The MMDA pays the Rodriguez government P150 per ton or P42.86 per cubic meter of trash dumped at the town’s landfill.

Both Rodriguez town mayor Cuerpo and Rizal provincial governor Casimiro Ynares III, however, are demanding separate payments for use of the provincial landfill. This was what prompted the MMDA to go to court for the preliminary injunction. – Ashzel Hachero