MANILA, Philippines - A network of environmental advocates vowed to stop the alleged unrestrained dumping of garbage in provinces surrounding the Sierra Madre mountain range, as it pressed for the unyielding preservation of the lush mountain, including its biodiversity.
Participants in the recent Save the Sierra Madre Summit in Quezon City criticized the existence of 73 “horrendous” dumps around Sierra Madre.
In a resolution, the Save the Sierra Madre Network called the dumping in Sierra Madre an “outright rape of the forest ecosystem” akin to the unbridled logging, mining and land conversion in the area.
“We believe that the Sierra Madre is a living monument of life and that every citizen and community has the duty to resist any plan to turn it into a graveyard of garbage,” the participants declared.
“Regardless of how they are called, the siting and operation of (dumps) in Sierra Madre is like a death sentence that will destroy the integrity of the forest, her rich biodiversity and her capacity to support sustainable development,” they added.
Citing latest available data from the website of the National Solid Waste Management Commission, the group said 45 open dumps, 21 controlled dumps and seven “sanitary” landfills exist in the Sierra Madre provinces.
The Sierra Madre mountain range straddles the provinces of Quezon, Rizal, Bulacan, Aurora, Quirino, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela and Cagayan.
Among the most controversial facilities that have caught the ire of the EcoWaste Coalition, Bangon Kalikasan Movement, Buklod Tao and the Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society are the “sanitary” landfills in Norzagaray and San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan, and Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) and San Mateo towns in Rizal.
Rei Panaligan, coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition, said participants in the Save the Sierra Madre Summit resolved to ask the local and national governments to carry out measures to protect the entire Sierra Madre.
Panaligan said the network demands the government close down, clean up and rehabilitate all the dumps; halt the use of “destructive and polluting waste technologies,” including landfills, incinerators and co-processing of waste in cement kilns; and enforce the ecological management of discards without dumping and burning.
The network of environment advocates also urged authorities not to use public funds for the collection and dumping of garbage in the Sierra Madre, Panaligan said.
“Instead, we call upon the government to earmark public funds for popular education and mobilization on waste prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling and composting in line with the Zero Waste approach to solve our stinking garbage woes,” Panaligan added.