BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Pulupandan, Negros Occidental mayor Miguel Antonio Peña has issued a “cease and desist” order over the weekend against an alleged illegal open dumpsite located in the town’s Barangay Palaka Sur after officials from the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) conducted a surprise inspection.
MENRO officials led by officer-in-charge and sanitary inspector Mila Lourdes Tandoy, together with Environmental Management Bureau-Department of Environment and Natural Resources (EMB-DENR) Environment Monitoring Officer Shellamite Labrador, conducted an ocular inspection at a property along the Negros South Highway last September 1.
According to MENRO, they conducted the inspection after receiving reports from local residents claiming they had spotted dump trucks with government markings entering the property carrying garbage and exiting empty.
Palaka Sur village chief Alen Rodrigo, meanwhile, said he received a complaint from Sonya Galimba claiming plastic bags were littering her farmlands after being blown by the winds. Galimba tried to confront the owner of the said property, identified as a certain Novo Torres, but she claimed that they were not accommodated.
Rodrigo said he immediately acted on the complaint and ordered the village’s Solid Waste Committee to act on the matter.
When members of the MENRO team finally conducted the ocular inspection, they discovered one of the trucks dumping garbage inside the property.
Tandoy claimed in her report that one of the trucks was even dumping “what appeared to be medical waste” inside the alleged illegal dumpsite.
She also noted that the dumpsite had been operating for several months and one of the drivers they talked to claimed that they were also dumping garbage coming from other towns, one of which later turned out to be the neighboring town of San Enrique.
The alleged illegal dumping is in violation of Republic Act 9003, or the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Following the ocular inspection, Peña was made aware of the issue and immediately issued a “cease and desist” order last September 2.
He also ordered the town’s local police and the village officials of Palaka Sur to enforce his cease and desist order, which would prohibit both the entry and removal of the garbage inside the property pending further investigation.
Once the investigation is completed, the Pulupandan local government is willing to assist San Enrique by returning their garbage.
Panay News, meanwhile, tried to reach out to the San Enrique local government and Negros Occidental’s provincial administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, regarding the alleged illegal garbage disposal in Pulupandan, but they have yet to comment as of press time./PN
