CONGRESSIONAL staff members of Benguet Representative Ronald Cosalan brought over 46 copies of the Supreme Court petition for Writ of Kalikasan received by City Government officials Wednesday.
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These copies were handed to the City Mayor’s Office, Vice Mayor’s Office and city councilors asking for the total closure of the Irisan dumpsite and to urge Baguio authorities to act on the effects of the Irisan trash slide last August.
The Writ of Kalikasan and Writ of Continuing Mandamus filed before Supreme Court involves a petition to grant Temporary Environmental Protection Order, which will cause total closure of the Irisan facility, including all activities conducted by Protech Machineries Corporation in the area.
Also included as respondents in the Writ are city councilors with Vice Mayor Daniel Fariñas as presiding officer, City Solid Waste Management Board headed by Mayor Mauricio Domogan, City Environment and Parks Management Office headed by Cordelia Lacsamana and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Fariñas, even as he said the city officials respect the petitioners’ clamor, countered the City Council and requested for the immediate action on the trash slide of concerned offices.
Despite not being a signatory and part of the voting of existing solid waste contracts, he claimed the council was not amiss in addressing the trash slide by declaring of a state of calamity to clear the 15,000 tons of garbage which spilled over the neighboring town of Tuba.
He said the council has long approved the conversion and rehabilitation of the Irisan dumpsite as an eco-tourism park.
He said request of petitioners who comprise National Artist Benedicto Cabrera, Cosalan, Board Member Johny Waguis and 16 other residents near the trash slide area are all valid.
The petition also implores action of agencies such as the DENR to act on concerns of affected residents on the proper implementation of Republic Act 9275 or the Philippine Clean Water Act.
Reports after the trash slide showed positive coliform contamination of water sources in several sitios of Tuba, Benguet.
Their concerns are doable for the part of the city, the vice-mayor said, but solutions for these would not be easy as there is no alternate dumping area within Baguio.
Next week, he will be bring the issue to other members of the council for immediate action especially on finding an alternate dumping ground if the Supreme Court orders the cessation of solid waste management operations within the Irisan facility. - (SunStar / by JM Agreda)
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