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WE hope the town of Rodriguez and Rizal Province would end their
dispute over the control of two landfills in that municipality and
see to their reopening to help dispose of and process trash in the
province and in Metro Manila.
At issue is an old 14-hectare facility that
Rizal Gov. Casimiro Ynares ordered closed and a new 19-hectare
landfill opened by the provincial government that, according to
Mayor Pedro Cuerpo, does not have an environmental compliance
certification.
Ynares claimed the old dump had exceeded its
capacity and has become a threat to public health. The mayor denied
this and said the landfill still had a couple of good years to
fulfill its work.
He added that the operator of the new landfill
does not have a contract from his office. As he campaigned for the
reopening of the old dump, he banned trash disposal in the new one,
putting up a barricade to show some muscle.
The governor claimed higher authority because
Rodriguez, the former Montalban, is part of the province. He urged
the mayor to sue for a court ruling.
A long impasse could mean a potential garbage
crisis in the province and the national capital region, urban
watchers warned. Seventeen cities and one town in Metro Manila
generate 7,000 to 8,000 metric tons of solid waste daily, a quarter
going to the Rodriguez landfill.
Makati’s secondary roads are beginning to
bloat with uncollected trash, according to the office of Mayor
Jejomar Binay. In Mandaluyong, garbage had started to fill some
streets.
The efficient collection of metro trash, along
with traffic management and flood control, is one of the
responsibilities of the Metro Manila Development Authority. The MMDA
must look for an alternate dump,
The 100-hectare Clark sanitary landfill in Capas,
Tarlac, could accommodate garbage from Metro Manila, but it’s too
remote for prompt service. The waste processing facility in
Norzagaray, Bulacan, refuses to accept waste from the NCR and other
provinces on orders of the provincial capitol. The Payatas landfill
is exclusive to Quezon City. The San Pedro, Laguna, dump and the
Navotas landfill do not look promising.
Even without a full-blown crisis, poor garbage
disposal and collection remain a fact of metro life. A number of
roads, street corners, public spaces and neighborhoods have become
favorite dumping grounds and the citizens and local governments are
not taking notice. We have taken them for granted.
Taking care of family or personal trash and
helping keep the neighborhood clean is the responsibility of every
citizen. Learning to minimize waste, recycling them and disposing of
them correctly is a basic test of common sense and citizenship.
Knowing how to segregate garbage helps the environment. We look to
government or to private contractors to collect and process garbage,
but first, we must learn and practice the basics of responsible
housekeeping.
It’s bad enough that we get rubbish regularly
from our leaders and lawmakers.
Rizal advances
GOV. Ynares hopes to win this battle and score
one for the provincial capitol. The province has had several losses,
the biggest being the transfer of a dozen towns to the Metropolitan
Manila Council, the forerunner of the MMDA.
Rizal was a dynamic, historic and proud province
of 24 towns when President Marcos created a special metropolitan
political subdivision and annexed a collection of municipalities
from Rizal and one town from Bulacan.
Rizal, bordering Quezon, Bulacan and Laguna,
lost the prosperous jurisdictions that used to form part of its
first congressional district. No other province has lost that much
territory in Philippine history.
The provincial leadership and its supporters did
not desire or plot revanchism but shrugged off their loss and began
a second act. Slowly Rizal rebuilt its industries, attracted
investments, started new businesses and built the foundations of a
stronger economy. It rewrote its history, advertised its culture and
rediscovered its natural endowments, rallying the Rizaleños all the
while.
Today Antipolo, Taytay, Angono, Cainta and
Binangonan and the other towns have become centers of growth and
civic vigor, making the province named after the national hero a
pacesetter in the national life.
Ironically, Rizal does not have a capital,
having lost Pasig to the metro Manila region. The provincial capitol
continues to dominate the Pasig skyline and unofficially calls Pasig
its political center. There are many candidates for the honor but a
formal choice still has to be made. Antipolo is a strong contender.
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