Iloilo City faces rap for ‘neglecting’ Calajunan dumpsite
Tired of the government’s inaction on the Calajunan dumpsite, a group of concerned citizens in Mandurriao district has filed a mandamus case against the Iloilo City government, Sangguniang Panglungsod, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-VI, and Department of Health-VI to compel them to implement the provision of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 that requires all local government units to convert an open dumpsite into a sanitary landfill.
Docketed as Special Civil Case No. 09-30219 the case falls under the sala of Regional Trial Court Branch 28 Judge Loida Diestro-Maputol.
Atty. Norberto Posecion, one of the counsels belonging to the Global Legal Action on Climate Change (GLACC), said in a press conference yesterday that they filed mandamus with prayer for preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order to compel the city and other government agencies concerned to implement the law.
Posecion said under the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 all LGUs should have converted their open dumpsites into sanitary landfill effective February of 2001.
“It’s nearly nine years since the law was passed but we haven’t seen any action on the part of the city government,” lamented Posecion.
He added, the people in the vicinity of the Calajunan dumpsite have long been complaining of air pollution and unhealthy environment but the city government simply ignored their complaints.
Posecion even noted that as early as 2004 the DENR ordered the closure of the Calajunan dumpsite but the city government simply asked that the dumpsite be rehabilitated.
“Nothing happened after those years, we feel that it will continue to be this way if we will not do something,” Posecion who himself lives in Mandurriao district told members of the media.
Atty. Marven Daquilanea, president of the Intergrated Bar of the Philippines-Iloilo Chapter, said their group is fully supporting the move of the concerned citizens of Mandurriao.
“Something has to be done, otherwise they (city officials) will just ignore the law,” Daquilanea said.
Daquilanea cited that one of the priorities of the IBP national is the enforcement of the environmental laws.
“We are not just joining the cause but we are representing the people... as lawyers we take the lead in the implementation of the law,” Daquilanea stressed.
Posecion clarified that their group is doing this “not because we want to make an adversary of the local government unit or government agencies involved in the implementation of the law but just to make them accountable of their responsibilities.”
“We are doing this so that they will be forced to implement the law,” Daquilanea added.
Posecion said their group is also readying a series of other environmental cases to be filed against concerned government agencies.
Also present in the press conference were attorneys R Leone Gerochi and Hilarion Firmeza.