BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The local government units of San Enrique and Valladolid have agreed to pullout their wastes which have been dumped at an alleged illegal dumpsite in Negros Occidental’s Pulupandan town.
San Enrique’s Mayor Jilson Tubillara, Valladolid’s Mayor Enrique Miravalles and Pulupandan’s Mayor Miguel Antonio Peña have recently held a meeting regarding the issue.
According to Tubillara, he and Miravalles have agreed to recover all their garbage from the site, adding that their town has been dumping garbage in the area especially during times of inclement weather.
Although there is no formal agreement between the landowner and the municipality, the former has requested them to dump garbage as “filling materials on his property,” he added and further clarified that the municipal government is not paying anything to the landowner.
“It is a controlled dumpsite, where after dumping garbage, you also dump soil. It’s not an open dumpsite,” he explained.
He also said that it was not the truck owned by the San Enrique municipal government that was caught by personnel of the Pulupandan municipal government at the time they were conducting inspection in the area.
“It was a truck owned by the Valladolid municipal government,” Tubillara said.
Meanwhile, San Enrique has already opened its segregation facilities with composting machines donated by Senator Cynthia Villar.
To recall, Peña issued a “cease and desist” last Sept. 2, ordering the local town police and the village officials of Palaka Sur to prohibit both the entry and removal of garbage from the property pending further investigation.
Once the investigation is completed, the Pulupandan local government is willing to assist both towns in returning their garbage./PN
