Dagupan opposition: We didn’t do the Bonuan dumpsite fire
THE opposition in the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod brushed aside reports and speculations accusing its members of being allegedly behind the fire that broke out at the dumpsite in Bonuan Binloc last week.
“May mga naririnig po kami na kami ang sinisising siyang dahilan kung bakit daw nasunog yong dumpsite sa Bonuan Binloc (We heard talks blaming us for the fire at the dumpsite in Bonuan Binloc),” Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia said in a privilege speech during the March 4 session.
The fire being referred to by Erfe-Mejia was the fourth suspicious fire that broke out at the dumpsite since Mayor Belen Fernandez returned to office in 2022 after a three-year hiatus, occurring every time she attempts to close the dumpsite.
He said blaming them for the incident was uncalled for, noting that he had long sought the closure of the dumpsite by citing Resolution No. 7427-2018, which he authored, “earnestly requesting the Community Environment and Natural Resources through the Environment Management Bureau to immediately close the open dumpsite in Bonuan.”
Coincidentally, it was also in 2018 when a similar suspicious fire broke out at the time members of the international media were in Dagupan for the signing of an agreement for a waste-to-energy (WTE) project negotiated by Fernandez with the US government. The project was to be set up in Bonuan to turn all the wastes there into methane gas and diesel fuel.
When Fernandez lost the election in 2019, her successor Brian Lim blocked the establishment of the WTE plant even at no cost to the Dagupan City government, opting to instead enter into a scandalous P57 million contract with a private company to merely pick up and deliver the wastes piling up at the dumpsite daily.
“Just to clear the issue, Mr. Chairman, wala kaming kinalaman, wala kaming dahilan sa pagsunog sa nasabing dumpsite sa Bonuan,” Erfe-Mejia said. (Leonardo Micua)
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