San Mateo, Rizal mayor opposes disposal of Manila’s waste to town’s landfill

San Mateo, Rizal Mayor Bartolome Rivera, Jr. strongly opposed the disposal of garbage from the City of Manila to the New San Mateo Sanitary Landfill after the Navotas Sanitary Landfill was closed.

According to JP Soriano’s report in “24 Oras” on Thursday, Rivera declined to face GMA Integrated News, but he said in an earlier statement that they were surprised with the pronouncement of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso about the disposal of the city’s garbage to landfill in San Mateo, Rizal.

“...Ang (Munisipyo ng San Mateo) ay nagulat sa naging pahayag ni Mayor Isko Moreno ng Maynila…hinggil sa paglipat ng tambakan ng basura ng lungsod ng Maynila sa New San Mateo Sanitary Landfill (NSMSLF),” he said.

(The Municipality of San Mateo was surprised by the statement of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno regarding the transfer of Manila's waste dumpsite to the New San Mateo Sanitary Landfill (NSMSLF).)

“Ang hakbang na iyan ay walang naging konsultasyon o paunang abiso man lamang sa ating lokal na pamahalaan,” Rivera added.

(That action had no consultation nor was the local government given prior notice.)

The San Mateo Mayor also said he thought that this is only an alternative dumpsite in case the landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal, stops its operation.

“...Hindi ito (landfill ng San Mateo) nakadisenyo para tanggapin ang malalaking volume ng basura mula sa mga malalaking siyudad ng Metro Manila,” said Rivera.

(This (San Mateo landfill) is not designed to accept large volumes of waste from the big cities of Metro Manila.)

The municipality is also worried that if the plan pushes through, the landfill's capacity will be filled, traffic will worsen, and the threat to the health and safety of the residents of San Mateo will increase, the mayor added.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said there was coordination with the local government of San Mateo.

The agency added that the other cities have already been dumping their garbage in the municipality’s landfill.

“It's just a matter of communication dahil hindi lang siguro namin nasabi agad kay Mayor Omie na may additional volume na dadalhin sa San Mateo landfill. Again, it's within ECC and the volume capacity allowed under the law,” said MMDA chairperson Romando Artes.

(It's just a matter of communication because maybe we didn't immediately tell Mayor Omie that there would be an additional volume brought to the San Mateo landfill. Again, it's within the ECC and the volume capacity allowed under the law.)

Meanwhile, Moreno-Domagoso said the local government of Manila tried its best to look for other landfills after they heard the news on the closure of Navotas Sanitary Landfill.

“Due to lack of material time, dahil dalawang buwan pa lang akong mayor, we created in two weeks time our own small transfer station and we required our private partners to buy new hauling truck so that those dump trucks, compactor na ginagamit sa Maynila for daily collection of garbage hindi na magamit para dalhin sa San Mateo,” he said.

(Due to lack of material time, because I've only been mayor for two months, we created our own small transfer station in two weeks and we required our private partners to buy a new hauling truck so that those dump trucks and compactors used in Manila for daily garbage collection would no longer be used to bring waste to San Mateo.)

The MMDA, on the other hand, said they will soon meet with Rivera to discuss the issue. — Vince Angelo Ferreras/BAP, GMA Integrated News