State of calamity declared in trash-swamped Baguio

DEADLY DUMP. Students, employees and traders climb a mound of 38-year-old garbage, estimated to be 18,000 cubic meters that now occupies Kilometer 5 of Asin Road in Baguio City. The trash slid off the city's decommissioned dump which was toppled by rains unleashed by Typhoon “Mina”. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Baguio City—The city council placed Baguio under a state of calamity during a special session on Wednesday, following almost two hours of debates over who was to blame for the Aug. 27 collapse of a section of a decommissioned dump in Barangay Irisan here.

Councilor Peter Fianza also convinced the city’s environment office and its engineering office to study whether removing the whole mountain of trash was more cost-effective. He said restoring the dump and its closure plan may cost the city government more than P100 million.

On Saturday, a section of the dump was washed out by heavy rains dumped by Typhoon “Mina,” causing mounds of trash to slide down to a mountainside community on Asin Road. Five people were killed after tons of garbage buried houses there.

Some councilors were initially skeptical about supporting a resolution that sought to put Baguio under a state of calamity, after pointing out that Republic Act 10121 (Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010) may not allow the release of calamity funds for the accident that affected two communities.

The calamity funds made available by the resolution could amount to more than P90 million.

Clearing the trash

More than P20 million would be spent on fees for hauling the trash blocking Asin Road to a sanitary landfill run by the Urdaneta City government in Pangasinan, said Councilor Elmer Datuin.

Vice Mayor Daniel Fariñas, the council presiding officer, urged the councilors to heed the expert opinion provided by several agencies that the 38-year-old dump in Barangay Irisan could further erode from monsoon rains or the entry of another typhoon.

Based on an interagency evaluation conducted this week, city environment officer Cordelia Lacsamana said floods created by run-off rainwater pushed a corner of the dump down toward a concrete reinforcement wall.

She said the combined weight of the garbage and water that seeped through the dump caused the wall to burst on Saturday afternoon.

The mountain of trash had been terraced to ensure it would not topple, but its full weight was shouldered by the concrete wall that was designed by city engineer Leo Bernardez.

When pressed, Bernardez insisted that his design was sturdy.

To reduce the risk of another trash slide, Lacsamana said one of the city’s options is to lighten the load of the dump by moving trash out of the west end of the facility.

But Fianza urged them to weigh the cost of removing all trash from Irisan, if city officials could not assure people that another trash slide would not be repeated.

In Olongapo City, Mayor James Gordon Jr. asked the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to assess whether the landslide prone areas in the city are still fit for habitation following a slide that killed two persons in Barangay Sta. Rita on Tuesday.

Gordon said he wanted the MGB to assess Mt. Balimpuyo in Sta. Rita where the landslide killed Ederlyn Macapal, 54, and her daughter, Manilyn, 12, so the city could take the next step to protect residents and their property.

“We will know if we have to order a forced evacuation in the area. Our last inspection there showed that there may be [other boulders] that could roll down the hill if there is a storm, continuous rain or an earthquake,” he said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon