Marikina mayor warned vs hosting waste facility
Jan. 06, 2003
By Nelson Flores
Inquirer News Service

THE REPORTED plan to bring Metro Manila garbage to Marikina had been officially denied.

But on Sunday, Marikina residents vowed to fight tooth and nail to protect their city from becoming a garbage dump.

Environmentalist Ed Parra, a resident of Barangay Parang in Marikina City, said he and his neighbors would not hesitate to use force, if necessary, to defend their community should Mayor Marides Fernando insist on hosting a waste facility even on a temporary basis.

Parra said it is already bad that the city is illegally operating the Doña Petra Subdivision dumpsite but "it would be an ecological disaster" if the facility would accommodate Metro Manila's waste.

He said the "Hitler-like tactics" employed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority would not cow the Marikina residents into submission, claiming they have enough courage to resist the plan that would transform the city into a wasteland.

Parra said that it is not acceptable to the residents that Marikina would host the waste of the metropolis even on a temporary basis, as Fernando earlier assured.

"We will fight if necessary," he stressed.

Marikina City public information officer Milette Lorenzo on Sunday repeated that the local government does not plan to host a dumpsite in the city.

She said the city would only take care of its own garbage.

Parra noted that the city government continues to operate the Doña Petra dumpsite even after it was declared illegal and harmful to the environment by the National Solid Waste Commission (NSWC).

He also accused Mayor Fernando of having consistently ignored the closure order on Doña Petra issued by the commission.

The dumpsite, just 200 meters away from the Marikina River, was declared illegal by NSWC director Albert Magalang after studies showed its harmful effects on the environment. The studies also found the dump to be one of the causes of the rising incidence of respiratory tract-related diseases in the area.

However, Lorenzo denied that the Doña Petra dumpsite was operating illegally.

Earlier, the MMDA issued a statement to deny that there's a plan to bring Metro Manila garbage to Marikina because there was no available space for the projected dumpsite in the city.

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