‘Palusot’

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

That’s the only way I can describe the appeal of the Pangasinan  Mayors League, led  by Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr., to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to suspend sanctions against them for failing to comply with the Solid Waste Management Law or RA 9003. It surely smacks of hypocrisy and mere political posturing.

Their reasons that neophyte mayors need more time to implement the law’s mandate and that poor municipalities have no resources to establish their own material recovery facility are pure hogwash. Far from exhibiting some leadership, this appeal exposed the poor and ineffective leadership of Mayor Guico over the years!

Mayor Guico conveniently forgets that the law was passed 6 years ago! Hence, he cannot deny today that he had the chance to prod his fellow mayors (including the defeated ones) in the past to comply with the law. Worse, the supposedly “new” plan to make all the poor municipalities to consolidate their resources is something that the mayors in the past knew they could do but didn’t.

So, tama na ang palusot!

The fact is, Mayor Guico, who is blessed with a blood relationship with President Arroyo, did nothing, period. He cannot use this same relationship as a way out of this inexcusable negligence on his part. He must be blamed for the sanctions that will be imposed on the Pangasinan mayors, old and new, for failing to protect the province’s environment!

But in fairness to him, Gov. Victor Agbayani and the previous provincial board are just as guilty.

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The protection of our environment is far more important than the need for investments and the creation of more jobs in the province. And sadly, we have not heard anything about any initiative from Guv Spines in this direction.

Peaceful, clean, and orderly communities blessed with clean air and water are what investors look for initially. He doesn’t need a forum to know that. The basic infrastructures are there for everyone to see the province has a class ‘A’ road network, power is accessible in 90% of the province, educated and skilled manpower is in abundance. Yes, having no operational airfield (never mind an airport), no efficient seaport, and having no railroad system may serve as serious handicap where multinational groups are concerned but polluted air and uncontrolled disposal of wastes are enough to keep all big and small investors out of the province.  

This  malady is underscored by the plan of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, headed by Ms. Wendy Co, to organize an Ecological Solid Waste Summit in Dagupan in late November to discuss the worsening garbage problem in the 44 towns  and four cities  in the province.

This is a job for a truly outraged Guv Spines (that is if he can dare to be one)! He has to crack the whip and must pay no heed to political posturing as recently demonstrated by the mayors.

Guv Spines, leave a legacy of one who kept Pangasinan truly clean and green! Not tomorrow but today!  

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As most PUNCH readers know by now, R.A.9003 was exploited in Dagupan City by the Benjie Lim administration as early as 2001. The prescription to construct sanitary landfills became the urgent alibi for a juicy real estate deal at the great expense of the city.

I remember how a “demonstration” was staged by residents in Bonuan to protest the continued operation of the dumpsite. Then on cue, my then favorite mayor fielded his onor-onors in the city council (led by now DOTC assistant secretary Teofilo Guadiz III) to craft a resolution authorizing him to negotiate.  And what a “negotiation” (no, a scam!) it turned out to be!

After fleecing the city government of P16 million in 2002 ostensibly to pay for a 33-hectare land in San Jacinto, the city today can’t even dare put a title to half of that land, and yet with no one being held accountable for the scam.

Unfortunately for the new Fernandez administration, with no financial resources to tap in order to comply with the law, i.e., to construct a landfill and close the dumpsite by the beach, I seriously doubt if the city can satisfactorily comply within the next 6 months.

The “Awai landfill that never was” is one ‘legacy’ of the Lim-Baraan-Guadiz triad that Dagupeños should never forget!

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