CAVDEAL

Ternateños fight back landfill approval

Cavite’s waste management issue is once again in the spotlight as Anti-Ternate Sanitary Landfill (TSL) advocates staged a rally in different barangays of the municipality Ternate on September 25 to express their outrage over the local government’s approval on September 4 of a resolution allowing the construction of the solid waste processing facility at Brgy. Sapang 1, Ternate.

This is the fifth mobilization of this kind against the landfill since the emergence of the TSL issue in early 2006. The movement is composed of several concerned sectors, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), local government officials headed by Vice Mayor Lamberto Bambao, some municipal councilors of Ternate and Councilor Bert de Leon of Maragondon, and scores Ternateños who are not in favor of the landfill as it can be a threat to Ternate’s natural resources. Several groups strongly opposed the approval of the TSL due to concerns regarding its environmental, health, legal, and social impacts.

Ternate Mayor Conrado Lindo’s authorization is the primary step to the landfill’s actualization. Despite Lindo’s consent to set off the TSL construction, the Anti-TSL advocates remain optimistic that they can still prevent its construction. The legality of the resolution’s approval is being contested by opposing Sangguniang Bayan members. “Itong resolution na ito involves environmental protection, so hindi siya majority votes, kundi ito ay isang percentage vote of all the Sanggunian, ibig sabihin 2/3 votes of all the Sangguniang members. When you say 2/3, seven votes ng Sanggunian, hindi lang anim kailangan, hindi lang majority kundi pito. So ang ginawa nila ay walang botohan na nangyari, so kino-contest namin ‘yun ginawa nilang proseso dito,” said Councilor Jason Cabaña, the first councilor to defy the TSL proposal, revealed the lack of quorum in approving the resolution, “So talagang illegal transaction ang ginawa nila, unang una wala ngang quorum, ‘pag walang quorum hindi pwede mag-transact ng kahit na anong business ang Sanggunian even if there is an agenda if there’s no quorum”.

Moreover, Ternateños Against Landfill Association, Cavite Greens Coalition-Kalikasan (CGC-K), Kalikasan sa Kinabukasan at Kaunlaran Foundation (KKKF) and Cavite Green Consortium in Ternate against TSL filed a petition of a Local Initiative proposing an ordinance to declare Brgy. Sapang, Ternate as a Special Ecological Zone that prohibits the construction of the sanitary landfill in the area, which is allowed under the Local Government Code on January this year and still pending for Provincial DILG’s evaluation.

Challenging the Mayor and other pro-Sanggunian members to alter their decision is an option the Ternateños intend to push through using a written document. In an interview with Mila Boren, President of KKKF, she and other residents sent a letter to the mayor encouraging him to take back the approval of the resolution, “ang sinasabi po ng liham na ito ay within 30 days after receipt of this letter, we’re going to initiate a citizen’s suit against him and the six other councilors who also signed the resolution, but as the vice mayor stated this resolution is a null resolution, its invalid for the reason that they did not follow proper procedure, so that’s what we’re going to do”, this will not be the last legal step that they would file, “However, there are still other options, we have other recourse to stop this landfill, we’re going to do several legal actions and we will continuously show our opposition to this landfill here in Ternate,” adds Boren.

Eloisa Tolentino, former Carmona Vice Mayor and now President of CGC-K, an organization that checks environmental matters in the province, mentioned in an interview that the landfill issue is not a strange subject to Caviteños. The current issue is the third edition of its kind. It has been fought by the same faces opposing the present landfill conflict since the term of former Governor Johnny Remulla, (Carmona Sanitary Landfill), Gov. Ramon “Bong” Revilla (Magallanes Sanitary Landfill) and now, in Gov. Ayong Maliksi (Ternate Sanitary Landfill). Carmona Sanitary Landfill is no longer in operation while the Magallanes Sanitary Landfill never operated. She also emphasized the strong possibility that the TSL will likewise end as Carmona and Magallanes. According to Tolentino, each issue appeared to be in a different situation.

The landfill in Carmona, the first landfill experience of Cavite, is a national government project wherein garbage from Metro Manila and neighboring provinces were dumped in the Carmona Sanitary Landfill. After four years and nine months of operation, Tolentino’s group convinced the local officials to close the landfill three times because of numerous incidents concerning the landfill’s negative effects to the community. In Magallanes’s case, with foreign company E-Quest German Technology as its proponent, it was a collaborative effort from different NGOs, the academe, and the Diocese of Imus that hindered the establishment of the Magallanes Sanitary Landfill and eventually put it to rest. Today, Ternate’s version of a landfill will be handled by Environsave, Inc., a Cavite-based environmental organization formed purposely for TSL and the Provincial Government with the project for waste management, “Sa Ternate, ito ay lehitimong Caviteño. Environsave ang proponent owned by the Cavdeal, owned by Mr. Lambert Lee. Ang may-ari ng Environsave ay ang kanilang pamilya. Nagtayo sila ng sarili nilang kumpanya, tsinek namin sa SEC, ang Board of Trustees ay ang kanyang buong pamilya. Kaya ito kinater lang talaga ang landfill project”, according to Tolentino.

Tolentino, Cabaña and Boren are hopeful of their chances of preventing the landfill operation, “Naniniwala ako na maipapanalo pa rin ito kasi mayroon pang legal issue, pwede pang mag-file ng kaso at mayroon pang isinusulong na local initiative na provided sa local government code, magco-co.nduct kami ng referendum sa issue, bukod pa ‘yung sa quorum,” Tolentino asserts.

On the other hand, Environsave, Inc. Liason Officer Arnel Omayan said that the people are not seeing the real situation, that instead of realizing why a landfill should be constructed in Cavite, they are protesting that Ternate is the site for the landfill. According to Omayan, any resident from any municipality would disagree of the landfill’s construction if their mentality states that the landfill is harmful to environment. Moreover, he clears that, ”It is the environmental project of the government and Environsave is only helping for the disposal of residual waste”. In addition, Hon. Alberto Bersamina, a pro-TSL Sanggunaing member, negates the failure of qourum issue saying that they have consulted and have been affirmed by the Povincial DILG regarding the validity of the votation for the resolution in the Sanggunian even with the absence of five other voting members. at present time, the only remaining requirement the proponent yet to accomplish before securing a building permit from the mayor’s office, is the permit from the House and Land Use Regulatory Board.

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