Marikina
mayor warned vs hosting waste facility
Posted: 6:30 AM (Manila Time) | Jan. 06, 2003
By Nelson Flores
Inquirer News Service
THE REPORTED
plan to bring Metro Manila garbage to Marikina had been officially
denied.
But on
Sunday, Marikina residents vowed to fight tooth and nail to
protect their city from becoming a garbage dump.
Environmentalist Ed Parra, a resident of Barangay Parang in
Marikina City, said he and his neighbors would not hesitate
to use force, if necessary, to defend their community should
Mayor Marides Fernando insist on hosting a waste facility
even on a temporary basis.
Parra said it is
already bad that the city is illegally operating the Doña
Petra Subdivision dumpsite but "it would be an ecological
disaster" if the facility would accommodate Metro Manila's
waste.
He said the "Hitler-like
tactics" employed by the Metropolitan Manila Development
Authority would not cow the Marikina residents into submission,
claiming they have enough courage to resist the plan that
would transform the city into a wasteland.
Parra said that
it is not acceptable to the residents that Marikina would
host the waste of the metropolis even on a temporary basis,
as Fernando earlier assured.
"We will fight
if necessary," he stressed.
Marikina City public
information officer Milette Lorenzo on Sunday repeated that
the local government does not plan to host a dumpsite in the
city.
She said the city
would only take care of its own garbage.
Parra noted that
the city government continues to operate the Doña Petra
dumpsite even after it was declared illegal and harmful to
the environment by the National Solid Waste Commission (NSWC).
He also accused
Mayor Fernando of having consistently ignored the closure
order on Doña Petra issued by the commission.
The dumpsite, just
200 meters away from the Marikina River, was declared illegal
by NSWC director Albert Magalang after studies showed its
harmful effects on the environment. The studies also found
the dump to be one of the causes of the rising incidence of
respiratory tract-related diseases in the area.
However, Lorenzo
denied that the Doña Petra dumpsite was operating illegally.
Earlier,
the MMDA issued a statement to deny that there's a plan to
bring Metro Manila garbage to Marikina because there was no
available space for the projected dumpsite in the city.
http://www.inq7.net/met/2003/jan/06/met_4-1.htm
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