PALAYAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, August
15, 2012–The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources has approved the application for an Environmental
Compliance Certificate of a waste-to-energy corporation for its 20-hectare
sanitary landfill project amid a storm of protest from civil society and local
residents in this provincial capital.
Lormelyn
Claudio, EMB regional director for Central Luzon, said they have already issued
the ECC to the Ecosci Corporation, a firm based in Quezon City
Claudio
said the ECC issued for Ecosci is for its sanitary landfill categorized as
“Category 4” which is projected to accommodate 800 metric tons of garbage in the
city. She said her office has also issued ECCs for the operations of sanitary
landfills in Sta. Rosa, also in Nueva Ecija and in Ma. Aurora
town in Aurora
Ecosci
earlier signed a lease agreement with the city government for the putting up of
the sanitary landfill in this city. The agreement was signed by Mayor Romeo
Capinpin representing the city government
and Juanito Ho, Ecosci chairman.
The
project is proposed to be set up in Barangay
Imelda Valley
Earlier,
the city council led by Vice Mayor Moises Carmona Jr. passed Resolution 37
authorizing Capinpin to enter into a lease agreement with Ecosci for the
setting up of the waste disposal facility.
Under
the agreement, the city government as the lessor will lease the facility to the
lessee (Ecosci) for a 25-year period renewable for another 25 years at a cost
of P700,000 per year. However, this could be increased to P1 million per year
when the daily waste disposal has reached 73 trucks per day for 30 consecutive
days.
The
agreement also stipulates that an expansion area of another 20 hectares will be
provided for the landfill project.
Capinpin said
that the project, which will cost P30 million for its first phase, will absorb
not only residual wastes produced by the city but the entire province as well.
He said the
project is in compliance with the provisions of Republic Act 9003 or the
Ecological Solid Waste Management Act which stipulate the closure of open and
controlled dumpsites.
Lawyer
Norberto Coronel, city legal officer, said the landfill project is necessary as
the city government already shut down its open dumpsite in Barangay Atate. He
admitted that the city now has no available disposal facility following the
closure of the Atate dumpsite.
Ecosci
will commence excavation works next month.
The
Palayan sanitary landfill is the second known landfill project in the province.
A similar project, worth P138-million, is also under construction in a
22-hectare site in the Science
City
Residents
and civic leaders have been opposing the landfill project and vowed to seek
legal remedies to stop it.
Teresita Odulio,
wife of automotive magnate Rene Odulio who owns vast tracts of land and
properties here has vowed to file a temporary restraining order to block the
waste disposal facility.
Mrs. Odulio is
one of three women leaders who are in the forefront of the protest against the
landfill, the others were Leny Tolentino and Aurelia Sandoval.
Tolentino said
they have launched a signature campaign to stop the project, with at least
10,000 local residents also affixing their signatures in the protest document
out of the total of 26,000 city residents.
Tolentino said
no public hearing was conducted to feel the pulse of the people regarding the
project. She said that they learned that some 75 trucks of garbage from nearby
towns and cities in the province will be disposed in the facility, which, she
said, could turn it into a “garbage capital.”
“We do not want our city, which is the capital of Nueva Ecija, to be known also as the garbage capital,” she said. (Manny Galvez)
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