City board chides eco group for threat to sue

CEBU City Hall took exception to a notice to sue sent by an ecology advocacy group for its alleged failure to implement a waste segregation program over the weekend.

City Hall consultant Janeses Ponce said the letter sent by the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) was a “threat” and chided the group for engaging in “junk science, press conferences, publicity stunts and threats of law suits.”

“Here you are (PEJC0 now threatening to sue the very people who had toiled hard to solve Cebu City´s garbage problem. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?,¨ he asked in the response letter.

Ponce represents Mayor Michael Rama as chairman of the Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB).

The PEJC and the Freedom from Debt Coalition-Cebu chapter complained about the presence of mixed wastes in the city’s streets and the unilateral closure of the Inayawan landfill.

“People don’t feel responsible for their wastes and neither do barangay leaders. With the exception of a handful, no one feels compelled to abide with our laws, including the Solid Waste Management law and the Clean Water Act,” they said.

They also questioned the city government’s closure of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, saying it was done “ without the participation of stakeholders´ including waste pickers.

Ponce replied by saying the city government never claimed that the city’s streets “are pristine” and it “did its job perfectly.¨

He said the groups’ statement was a “sweeping generalization” based on ¨incidental or isolated experience.¨

Ponce said the no segregation, no collection policy of the city ¨still being enforced.”

He said streamers are placed in streets to inform the public and the policy is promoted in local media.

Ponce cited the failure of the previous administration to enforce a viable and workable solid waste management plan.

“With nothing in place to start with, Mayor Michael Rama had to start from scratch,” he said.

Ponce also scored the group’s opposition to the waste-to-energy program initiated by foreign and local investors led by Green Energy Solutions Inc.

¨Unfortunately your group managed to demonize the proposed WTE project by branding it as an ¨incineration plant before the media and the public,” Ponce said, adding that there’s nothing in the proposed project that involved incineration or burning of garbage. Correspondent Tweeny M. Malinao