Dump gets permanent protection

BAGUIO CITY—The Court of Appeals has imposed a permanent environmental protection order over Baguio’s old dump, which collapsed a year ago, allowing some lawyers to start focusing on damage suits against the city government.

The CA, in an Aug. 10 ruling, approved the petition for a declaration of consent decree submitted by the city government and the petitioners composed of residents of Barangay Irisan and Asin Road and officials of Benguet and Aringay, La Union.

A consent decree states that contending parties have agreed to submit to a common set of action that would resolve an environmental problem. These actions would be undertaken under court supervision.

The declaration of consent decree ensures that Baguio officials, as well as their successors, would no longer use the dump to store trash and must enforce a 10-year program to convert the area into an ecological park.

Lawyer Francesca Macliing-Claver, a member of the legal team which petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of kalikasan against the Baguio government, said she is organizing a legal group that would seek damages from the city on behalf of the victims of the Aug. 27, 2011, trash slide. Six people were killed in the slide.

Claver said the appellate court requires the city government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to submit periodic reports about the progress made in rehabilitating the dump.

The ruling, however, does not address damages.

The lawyers decided to exclude damage claims from the writ so they can focus on obtaining the permanent environmental protection order, Claver said.

With the dump’s closure guaranteed by the court, the affected villagers may now proceed with damage claims with the help of lawyers who will represent them pro bono, she said.

Claver said the trash slide destroyed a P2-million house owned by a doctor, one of many Asin Road residents who wanted to be compensated.

The dump has been the subject of complaints since 1987, the year of the first documented barricade mounted by villagers at the dump.

These protests have been revived periodically while residents pursued a letter-writing campaign about the dump’s impact on sanitation and health in the surrounding communities.  Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon