In Baguio, trash splits city wealth, time

BAGUIO CITY—The summer capital’s resources have been divided between cleaning up the trash slide triggered by a typhoon in August and preparing to fight a Supreme Court petition for a writ of kalikasan that was filed against the city government.

The writ petition asked the Supreme Court to compel Baguio to stop using the dump, rehabilitate the facility properly and clean up the water systems it had polluted for decades.

Cordelia Lacsamana, city environment officer, said the government is building up a case that argues how an environmental protection order being sought by residents of Tuba, Benguet, and Aringay, La Union, could worsen the conditions of the facility.

“Stopping the process of closing the decommissioned Irisan dump now won’t help the cleanup,” she said.

Benguet Rep. Ronald Cosalan said he had transmitted on Dec. 15 to the Supreme Court a petition seeking a writ of kalikasan on behalf of the residents of Barangay Tadiangan in Tuba, where the city’s decommissioned dump toppled four months ago apparently due to rains dumped by Typhoon “Pedring.”

The Aringay government also joined the petition because the runoff water discharged from Irisan flows to the town.

But the mayor of Tuba announced on Dec. 16 that he wanted no part in the petition because he and Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan had worked out a new solid waste management scheme.

Tuba Mayor Florencio Bentres said, “We have already discussed [the state of the dump] with Mayor Domogan, so why do we have to be [a party to] the writ petition if we are negotiating with him already?”

Lacsamana said Bentrez has been apprised of the state of Baguio’s solution to its garbage crisis.

The Irisan dump is still used as a temporary holding area for plastic waste by Protech Machineries Inc., which supplied Baguio with two Japanese recycling machines that process organic waste into powdered fertilizer.

Protech ships the plastics temporarily to a materials recovery facility in Urdaneta City, until it can get environmental clearance to process the plastics into pellets for export to China, Lacsamana said.

The dump has been gated to protect the two recycling machines, but Lacsamana is seeking another venue for these equipment. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon