Woe to Obando: Green group assails CA ruling on landfill

The Court of Appeals. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—An environmental watchdog denounced a recent Court of Appeals (CA) ruling favoring the operation of a landfill in Obando, Bulacan province, which faces Manila Bay and is near the Malabon and Navotas areas.

“The CA ruling will greatly exacerbate the impacts of climate change in the highly vulnerable town of Obando and the entire Manila Bay,” according to Aileen Lucero, national coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition.

The privately operated 44-hectare Obando Sanitary Landfill is being built in a mangrove forest area and a flood-prone fishing village, the EcoWaste noted in a statement issued on Friday ahead of the Global Climate March on Sept. 21.

“The solution to our growing garbage crisis is clearly not the creation of more dumps, such as landfills…but the genuine enforcement of Republic Act No. 9003,” Lucero said.

She was referring to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which requires the segregation of trash at source, recycling, composting and the setup of materials recovery facilities.

CA notes compliance

In an Aug. 29 ruling, the CA dismissed a petition filed by a group of Obando residents opposing the landfill, a project of EcoShield Development Corp. (EDC) owned by businessman and former ambassador Antonio Cabangon-Chua and his son Edgardo.

The CA’s Former 10th Division ruled that the EcoShield landfill project had complied with the requirements of the law and was certified by government agencies to be environmentally safe.

The court said it could not issue against the project a writ of kalikasan and temporary environmental protection order sought by the concerned residents of Obando led by Ma. Theresa Bondoc, because their plea “does not involve an environmental damage of such magnitude to warrant the issuance of [such writ.]”

Such a writ is available “when there is such a significant degree of environmental damage as to prejudice the life, health and property of inhabitants in two or more cities or provinces,” the court said in the decision written by Justice Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla.

Project site reclassified

EDC earlier acquired an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau.

The company proposed the project in October 2008 on a 44-hectare islet acquired in Barangay Salambao, Obando. The barangay (village) council of Salambao approved the project in December 2010 while the Obando municipal council issued a permit to construct and operate a landfill in January 2011.

The council also passed an ordinance reclassifying the project site from agricultural or commercial/industrial. This was later approved by the Bulacan provincial board.

Marches, signature drives

However, residents, mostly fishermen and urban poor, opposed the landfill project and launched protest marches and signature drives against the project. They claimed the negotiations for the project were rushed and not transparent.

In Friday’s Ecowaste statement, Cheen Layman of the Obando Kami ay Para sa Iyo also assailed the ruling, saying: “The CA decision will adversely affect the livelihood of thousands of fishing families in Obando-Malabon-Navotas area and seriously disturb the remaining mangrove forest and breeding grounds of sea life, weakening the people’s capacities against extreme climate events.”

Paeng Lopez of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives added: “Landfills are the largest global source of human-created methane, a toxic climate-changing gas that is 25 to 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide, thereby contributing immensely to climate change.” Erika Sauler