Writ of kalikasan sought to rehabilitate dump

TUBA, Benguet—Residents who witnessed the growth of Baguio City’s mountain of garbage joined on Saturday an environmental suit drawn up by National Artist Ben Cabrera, Benguet Representative Ronald Cosalan and the municipal council of Aringay, La Union, to compel the summer capital to rehabilitate its only dump.

Four Baguio-based lawyers will transmit the petition seeking a writ of kalikasan to the Baguio government and the Supreme Court on Monday, Cosalan said here, after they secured the signatures of Barangay (village) Tadiangan residents whose houses and water sources were affected by Baguio trash that toppled on August 27.

A writ of kalikasan is a legal remedy provided by the High Court, through environmental protection order, that will bar agencies, firms and government officials from undertaking projects or activities that directly imperil the environment.

The writ would force the Baguio government to stop using the Irisan dump and to use the city’s resources to start rehabilitating the facility immediately, said lawyer Francisca Claver, who drew up the petition alongside lawyers Noe Villanueva, George Pukay and Pablito Sanidad, former president of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).

Officially, the dump in Irisan, which towers over Tadiangan, had been decommissioned in 2008.

The trash slide, which killed six people and which polluted Asin Road and its neighboring creeks, had been attributed to the high volume of rain dumped by Typhoon “Pedring,” according to a report of the city government.

For months, the garbage littered Asin Road, which straddles Tuba and Baguio City.