Ombudsman warns 6 mayors, ex-mayors over open dumps

Six incumbent and immediate former mayors of a city and a municipality in Cavite and a town in Rizal face possible criminal and administrative charges for ignoring an order to shut down their illegal dumps, the Office of the Ombudsman said on Tuesday.

The mayors of Trece Martires City, Ternate, Cavite and Taytay, Rizal as well as their respective incumbent and immediate former vice mayors, councilors and municipal environmental officers were placed under formal investigation for violating the 15-year old Ecological Solid Waste Management Act or Republic Act No. 9003.

These are Trece Martires City Mayor Melandres de Sagun and his predecessor Melencio de Sagun Jr.; Ternate Mayor Herminio Lindo and predecessor Lamberto Bambao; and Taytay Mayor Joric Gacula and predecessor Janet de Leon-Mercado.

They are also being investigated for the possible administrative case of neglect of duty, which carries the maximum penalty of dismissal from service.

“For so long the law has not been followed. There have many been excuses, like there’s no ordinance, no budget. But we have to point out that these excuses are not found in the law,” Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera said.

Mosquera, who heads the Ombudsman’s special probe into 50 reported illegal dumps around the country, said the officials of these three municipalities have ignored the fact-finding probe.

“We’ll immediately elevate these cases into regular Ombudsman cases for criminal and administrative cases,” he said.

He added that they included even the newly-elected officials in the formal investigation “because the commitment to close the open dump site is continuing.”

Ombudsman lawyer Myla Teologio said these mayors and local officials ignored the order to submit their explanation and a detailed plan to immediately close the facilities.

While no one has yet been prosecuted under R.A. 9003, Mosquera vowed that “in the next few months there will be.”

The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 prohibits open dump sites and mandates waste segregation, recycling facilities and controlled landfills.

Mosquera said most of the 50 cities and municipalities had complained, or have presented plans to shut down their dumping grounds. These are in the provinces of Cebu, Iloilo, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Albay, Quezon, Oriental Mindoro, Northern Samar, Leyte and Palawan.