'Illegal' dumpsite in Marikina City
Posted: 10:22 PM (Manila Time) | Oct. 28, 2002
By Nelson F. Flores
Inquirer News Service

METRO Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando, who's on top of garbage collection in the metropolis, has a stash of trash in his own backyard.

The former mayor of Marikina has apparently failed to clean his own city, which has an illegal dumpsite that has been operating for several years now, according to Albert Magalang, National Solid Waste Commission executive director.

Magalang said the commission in 1995 had issued a closure order against the dumpsite but this has not been enforced.

Fernando's wife, Marides Fernando, is now mayor of Marikina. Magalang said that if she continues to refuse to enforce the closure order, the commission would be forced to file administrative, criminal and graft charges against her.

He said that the recent NSWC inspection of the area had shown that the dump, located in a former swampland in Doña Petra Subdivision, Barangay Concepcion Uno, has been operating on and off since 2000, when the San Mateo sanitary landfill was closed.

Magalang said the city government would temporarily stop the operation of the dumpsite whenever local residents would file a complaint with the Laguna Lake Development Authority of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. But after a few months, the dumpsite would resume operation, he added.

"That is why we welcome the participation of local residents in monitoring the condition of the dumpsite," Magalang said.

Records showed that Bayani Fernando opened the dumpsite in 1994. The following year, the DENR and the LLDA issued a cease and desist order against the dumpsite, describing it as a direct menace to public health and safety, the records showed.

The DENR, LLDA and the NSWC had received reports that after the dumpsite was opened, there was an increase in respiratory tract-related illness among residents of Doña Petra Subdivision and adjoining areas.

The dumpsite is said to emit noxious fumes and odors, which become almost unbearable at noon.

The stench and the rash of illness prompted local residents to file complaints with the city government, but then Mayor Bayani Fernando allegedly ignored the complaints, Magalang said.

"There is a scarcity of Fernando admirers in our community," said engineer Ed Parra, former president of the Twinville Homeowners Association. Twinville is near the dumpsite.

Anita Paway, Samahang Kapatiran ng Doña Petra president, said the Fernandos labeled their complaint as politically motivated.

As of last week, the pile of waste in the dumpsite was already about 10 meters high, said Magalang.

http://www.inq7.net/met/2002/oct/29/met_3-1.htm