After Payatas, DENR to close 50 more dumps

Roy Cimatu

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) intends to shut down at least 50 illegal dumps across the country by December, and around 500 by the end of the Duterte administration in 2022.

In a statement on Friday, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu said the target was set in line with of the agency’s “intensified enforcement” of Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. Having open dumps, the secretary said, is illegal under the 16-year-old law.

The statement followed the DENR’s decision rejecting a request from the Quezon City government to temporarily reopen the Payatas sanitary landfill before it gets permanently closed at the end of the year.

The landfill’s operations were suspended by the DENR earlier this month as bad weather raised risks of “trash slides.”

Cimatu said local government officials who would continue to allow open dumps in their jurisdiction would face charges from the DENR.

“RA 9003 gives prime importance to the roles of LGUs in managing solid wastes. They are primarily responsible for the law’s implementation, not the DENR. The DENR’s role is limited to monitoring the compliance of LGUs with the law,” Cimatu pointed out.

In an earlier statement, DENR Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs Jonas Leones said the agency was considering  waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies as a “smart alternative” to landfills, saying they are allowed under the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

“Our landfills can only hold so much trash,” Leones said. “We need to look for other ways to dispose of our garbage and WTE is a smart alternative with less environmental impact,” Leones said.