826 + 359 = P2.8 Billion

SOMETHING SMELLS

Negros Daily Bulletin

By Alan S. Gensoli

Luma si Einstein sa formula ni Atienza.

But before I go into that...last time my column ran, I asked you to look out for my next column originally scheduled on Feb. 9. I spoke too soon. During the last weekly meeting of the Communications Committee of the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance, chaired by Gigi Campos, it was decided by our Writers’ Bureau that I take the column every Monday. So, here I am. 

Starting today, you can read my mind on this space every Monday. Now that you know that we have a Writers’ Bureau, you might wonder if we also have a Speakers’ Bureau. We most certainly do, but that belongs to our Education Committee, chaired by Maggie Jalandoni. In my future columns, I will insert snippets about the activities of all of our other committees, including Legal (chaired by Agnes Jalandoni), Research (chaired by Dr. Elsie Coscolluela), Monitoring (chaired by Norman Campos), New Business (chaired by Jean Trebol), Membership (chaired by Chole Chua), Secretariat (chaired by Sally Ledesma), Community Development (chaired by Dioning de la Cruz), Product Merchandising (chaired by Tina Monfort), and of course, Finance (chaired by Gina Piccio). Now you know that the members of the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance work very hard at what they do. 

Back to Einstein...este...Atienza. On May 5, 2008, DENR Sec. Lito Atienza gave LGUs an extension of six months to comply with R.A. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. Under R.A. 9003, all open garbage dumps were supposed to be closed by Feb. 16, 2004, giving way to the use of controlled dumps. Two years later, on Feb. 16, 2006, all controlled dumps were also supposed to be closed, giving way to sanitary landfills. By now it is common knowledge that the Bacolod garbage dump in Purok Acacia, Brgy. Felisa, is still an open dump, five years after open dumps were declared illegal. And as you will soon learn, Bacolod is not alone. Reason for the six-month extension graciously granted by Sec. Atienza because the DENR, his office, did not do its job of compelling LGUs to comply with R.A. 9003 as originally scheduled by law. How convenient. I call it incentivising inefficiency. 

Nothing in R.A. 9003 specifically bestows power to the DENR Secretary to give deadline extensions. But granted that Atienza is authorized to do so, what has he to show for the exercise of such authority? Apparently, nothing. The six-month extension started on May 5th ended on Nov. 5th. That explains the cotillion of DENR officials who came to Bacolod around that time, DENR Reg. Exec. Dir. Lormelyn Claudio and Reg. Dir. Bienvenido Lipayon on Nov. 3, and NSWMC Exec. Dir. Gerardo Calderon on Nov. 13. Chaired by Atienza himself, the National Solid Waste Management Commission, or NSWMC, was created by R.A. 9003 to implement R.A. 9003, but so far, it has fallen flat on its face. In fact, when Calderon marched into town, he claimed that there are about 900 non-compliant LGUs in the country. That’s when I suspected that the six-month extension granted by Atienza was an exercise in futility. 

True enough, on Jan. 2, 2009, The Philippine Star ran a story titled, “Atienza wants LGUs’ waste handling subsidies adjusted.” In the story Atienza admitted that there are still 826 open dumps in the country, illegal since 2004. DENR records add that there are also 359 controlled dumps, illegal since 2006. These, after Atienza authorized a delay in compliance to R.A. 9003 by giving LGUs a six-month extension. Because that is exactly what Atienza did: he authorized a delay! Not only did he fail to compel LGUs to comply, he authorized further delay in compliance by giving that six-month extension. Atienza made the worse come to worst. If he were a slice of porkchop, he just jumped from the pan and into the fire. 

As if Atienza hadn’t inflicted enough pain upon communities with open dumps, he said that he was now inclined to appeal to NEDA for a change in our national policy on waste management, in order to give LGUs money to build their sanitary landfills. And when will that happen? For surely that will cause more delay. 

On Jan. 11, 2009, the Manila Bulletin ran a story titled, “P2.8B allocated to help LGUs shift to “green” sanitary landfills.” Now, the Atienza formula is complete: 826 + 359 = P2.8 Billion! It’s not math. It’s magic. The story disclosed that the DENR has allocated P2.8 Billion as subsidy for LGUs to construct their landfills. When will this be released? Is this just mere talk to buy time? And by the way, this may not be the final solution yet, because according to the story the allocations will require counterpart funding that LGUs must cough up. There’s another reason for more delay as LGUs will predictably pretend they are cash-strapped. 

Moreover, in the same story, the NSWMC disclosed that there are 16 existing sanitary landfills in the country, while 19 more are under construction. Granting that the records of the NSWMC are correct, and that may be granting too much, that’s only a total of 35 landfills, a far cry from 931 LGUs that the NSWMC says continue to maintain illegal dumps. Now, let me offer you more insight. How come Atienza claims that there are still 826 open dumps and 359 controlled dumps, while the NSWMC claims there are 931 erring LGUs? The difference in the computations may be due to the fact that some LGUs have more than one illegal dump. Based on the foregoing numbers, on the average, every erring LGU has 1.27 illegal dumps. But Bacolod is an “above-average” kind of city. Bacolod has 10, more or less. While we are just focused on the open dump in Purok Acacia, Brgy. Felisa, there have been many other open dumps used in the past that have not yet been safely closed and rehabilitated. In early January, the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance sent the list to DENR Reg. Dir. Bienvenido Lipayon to confirm if the city has secured authority to close these open dumps. Lipayon wrote back to confirm that the city has not. And so, while Bacolod is one of the 931 erring LGUs, Bacolod accounts for 10 of the 1,185 (826 + 359) illegal open dumps. But let’s go back to Atienza. 

Sec. Lito Atienza seems not at all determined to put pressure on LGUs to comply with R.A. 9003. But why? Perhaps, because Atienza is planning to run for the Senate in 2010 and so he would like to get on the good side of mayors so they will carry his name in their sample ballots? If so, then let me make this promise now, that in 2010, should Atienza run for the Senate, I will personally campaign for his defeat. Pex man!*