THE city government of Dagupan is seeking more time to operate the city’s open dumpsite in Bonuan while it is still looking for a suitable area to build its permanent sanitary landfill in.

City Waste Management chief Reginaldo Ubando admitted the city received a 10-day ultimatum from the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources within which to adopt a safe closure plan, preparatory to eventual closure of the open dumpsite.

Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr., to whom that ultimatum was addressed, already appealed to the DENR to extend the deadline for the city to build an environment-friendly alternative to its existing dumpsite, located near the sea in Bonuan.

“Definitely, 10 days is not enough,” he said.

Ubando said it was not only Dagupan that received such an ultimatum but all other LGUs in Region 1 and in the entire country as the deadline for all open dumpsite under Republic Act No. 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act already expired in 2006.

Speaking over a local radio station, Ubando said Dagupan has an existing four-hectare dumpsite and only more than one hectare of it is now being utilized, as the rest of the area is now being rehabilitated for conversion soon into a tree park.

He said this was done because Dagupan was serious in its waste segregation effort that effectively reduced the volume of its wastes being brought to the dumpsite by 70 percent.

R.A. 9003 targets only 30 percent waste reduction out of segregation but Dagupan exceeded the target by reducing its wastes to 70 percent.

Ubando said that in the entire Region 1, Dagupan was the most successful LGU as far as waste segregation is concerned.

He said Dagupan needs at least 12-hectare land that can be converted into a sanitary landfill but this may yet take long as the facility costs a staggering amount of P350 million.
Ubando said in the entire country, there are only four sanitary landfills so far.

He said not only Dagupan is appealing to the DENR for the extension of the deadline for compliance to RA 9003 but also all other towns and cities led by the League of Municipality of the Philippine headed by Mayor Ramon Guico Sr. of Binalonan.

The Dagupan City government intended to put up one in year 2002 but the 30-hectare land it bought from barangay Awai in San Jacinto for P16 million was put under the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in a decision in 2003 by the Department of Agrarian Reform Arbitration Board, throwing a monkey wrench on the city’s plan. (PNA)