SMOKEY MOUNTAIN, BACOLOD CITY 6100

SOMETHING SMELLS

Smokey Mountain, Bacolod City 6100

By Alan S. Gensoli

Last September 15th I promised that in my next column I will clarify who is primarily responsible for implementing Solid Waste Management (SWM), the city government or the barangay council. I am sorry that that will have to give way to a more timely and pressing issue: Brgy. Felisa, Bacolod’s very own Smokey Mountain.

On September 24, the barangay council of Felisa attended the city council’s meeting at city hall. The meeting was scheduled to take up the barangay council’s resolution asking the city government to submit within 15 days pertinent documents proving that the seven-hectare lot in Felisa recently bought by the government for P23.8 Million for its supposed sanitary landfill, was indeed properly sited by survey as suitable for a sanitary landfill facility. Prior to the meeting, Felisa Brgy. Capt. Peregrino Aspan and his kagawads sought an audience with the Baha.

At our meeting with them, we saw, heard, and felt the frustration of the barangay leaders over the city government’s apparent attempt to ignore the opinions and sentiments of the residents of Felisa as far as the sanitary landfill project is concerned. The seven-hectare property was bought by the city government without the consent of the barangay council. This consent is a prerequisite to acquiring an ECC for the construction of the sanitary landfill. No ECC, no sanitary landfill, and the city is left in the hole for P23.8 Million and tons of garbage that has nowhere to go but Felisa. I smell something bad, the city bullying Felisa.

The stalemate between the city government and the Felisa barangay council is borne out of distrust. We are told by the kagawads that in 2005, when the dumpsite in Mandalagan was being closed, the city government sought the help of Felisa by asking the barangay council to agree to put up a controlled dumpsite. Out of the exigency of the time (at that time the dumptrucks were packed to the rafters with nowhere to go because they could no longer dump at the Mandalagan site), and out of a concern to help the city government in dire need, the Felisa council agreed for the city to install a controlled dumpsite at a four-hectare property in their barangay. The agreement was for three years. The three years are now up. And worse, the city government reneged on their promise because the dumpsite has remained an open dumpsite, not a controlled dumpsite.

The Baha group, after meeting with the barangay council, drove to the dumpsite. I know a controlled dumpsite. That was not a controlled dumpsite. It is an open dumpsite—if it looks like an open dumpsite and smells like an open dumpsite, then it must be an open dumpsite.

Because of this, the barangay council of Felisa has lost confidence that the city government will in fact build a sanitary landfill in the new seven-hectare property. If the city government failed to build a controlled dumpsite before, and for three long years as promised, what reason has Felisa to believe now that the city government will build a far more expensive sanitary landfill? It would seem, the city government lied. Remember the boy who cried “Wolf!”?

Since the seven-hectare property was bought for P23.8 Million, I have never questioned the purchase, especially the matter about the price. By conscious decision, I limited my concern strictly on the construction of the sanitary landfill. However, now, after meeting with the Felisa council and seeing for myself the open dumpsite, a preponderance of corroborating evidence convinces me that this seven-hectare property was not properly sited, as required by law. Councilor Greg Gasataya himself shared with me that they do not have the written consent of the Felisa barangay council. Now the council itself has admitted that in fact they have not issued one. Why should they? They were not consulted. Worse, the seven-hectare property is even closer to the center of the barangay population than the existing open dumpsite.

Article 6, Section 40, of Republic Act 9003 lists the minimum criteria for the siting of a sanitary landfill. Two minimum criteria immediately call my attention: Letter (d) of the section states, “The site must be chosen with regard for the sensitivities of the community’s residents”. But the barangay council of Felisa is objecting.

Letter (e) follows, “The site must be located in an area where the landfill’s operation will not detrimentally affect environmentally sensitive resources such as aquifer, groundwater reservoir or watershed area”. There are five Baciwa wells in the area and a river flows adjacent to it. The kagawads testified, fish have died, the bamboos along the bank have withered, and the carabaos of the local residents have nowhere to drink.

Much as I would like the sanitary landfill constructed posthaste, I now must join the barangay council of Felisa object to its building in this seven-hectare property. And because of this, I now join the many others who object to the purchase of this property because it was not properly sited, as required by law.

Meanwhile, the open dumpsite is overflowing. I saw it. I smelled it. And I am saddened by it.