Salambao landfill a threat to Obando residents

Two news reports in the Inquirer caught my attention. One was about the dismantling by the police of a makeshift tent put up by Obando, Bulacan parish priest Fr. Vince Hizon for a concert in protest of the proposed sanitary landfill in Barangay Salambao (Sept. 16); the other was about the declaration of a state of calamity in the provinces and municipalities—including Obando—worst hit by Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel.”

I love the fiestas of the Virgin of Salambao, Sta. Clara and San Pascual de Bailon, after which I would buy fish and seashells. But things have changed. Obando is now a danger zone. Lormelyn Claudio, director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), Region III, has issued an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) for EcoShield Development Corporation to put up a landfill in a 44-hectare island fishpond in Salambao—which is right in Manila Bay—for the garbage of Metro Manila and other areas.

Obando residents, Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros, several priests, and other concerned citizens are against this project because it will further pollute Obando’s waters, which are part of the Marilao River System (MRS) and Manila Bay; endanger the health of residents; and deprive them of whatever is left of the marine resources that have been considerably depleted due to the toxics from upstream beginning in the highlands of Rizal and the leachate from the existing Phileco landfill nearby. The residents had also opposed the Phileco landfill and barred its garbage barge, forcing the company to seek another nearby island. It is almost impossible now to stop the barge; meanwhile the effects of the spreading leachate, foul odor, and unsightly and toxic garbage worsen. Blacksmith Institute has found the MRS one of the 30 dirtiest rivers of the world. Already, some 1,000 mangroves have fallen after dredging and clearing activities, while protest leaders are getting death threats.

I appeal to the owner of EcoShield and chairman of the Catholic Mass Media Awards, former Ambassador Antonio Cabangon-Chua, his company’s architect, Ralph Tecson, Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado , Obando Mayor Orencio Gabriel, and EMB Director Claudio to stop this grossly ill-advised project, which was approved without genuine public consultation and is now the object of weekly protest actions.

I also appeal to Environment Secretary Ramon Paje to revoke the ECCs of EcoShield and Phileco, in accordance with the Supreme Court order for the clean-up of Manila Bay; and to clean up his department of corrupt and incompetent officials.

I pray for strength and God’s protection for everyone in this crusade.

—NOEL DE LEON,

noeldeleon_pilipinas@yahoo.com