TUBA, Benguet: Baguio must tend to its garbage rather than adopt a NIMBY—not in my back yard—attitude that can touch off deaths of innocent people.
Next-door-neighbor municipality Tuba Mayor Florencio Bentrez wanted his message conveyed to Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan to “Haul out the garbage and stop dumping at the site.”
Bentrez was referring to the Irisan dump, destination of Baguio City’s trash that lies between the boundary of the city and the municipality.
On Saturday, heavy rains at the height of super typhoon ‘Mina”s onslaught on the province have caused tons of garbage from the city dump to avalanche between the boundary of Barangay Tadyangan in Tuba and Kilometer 5 Asin road, Baguio City.
Three died and two were injured as the dump’s retaining wall collapsed and buried the five victims. The garbage heap also blocked Asin road that left commuters visiting a famous museum in Tuba and the Asin hot spring stranded.
Authorities identified those who died as Revillar Flores, 13; Apolinario Flores, 10; and Floro Sulliven, 32. They died of suffocation.
Those injured were identified as John Flores, 24, and Franco Flores, 15.
