Garbage dump akin to Calvary where the poor are crucified

We are poor but legitimate residents of Lupang Pangako (Land of Promise), in Payatas, Batasan Hills, Quezon City. We are praying for mercy and compassion. And we are hoping that our beloved Pope Francis, Luis Cardinal Tagle and President Aquino will intervene so that our plea for the closure of the Payatas dump will be heard.

Only mercy and compassion can change the hearts of Quezon City’s leaders and the officials of the Environmental Management Bureau-National Capital Region and make them close the dump—finally.

We were relocated here during the time of the late President Corazon Aquino by former Quezon City mayor Brigido “Jun” Simon to give us an opportunity to live with dignity. We built humble homes, put up small businesses; and our children were able to attend nearby schools; we also planted trees, vegetables, and ornamentals all around us.

This was before our once beautiful, hilly community was turned

into a dump for the garbage and waste of Quezon City and other Metro Manila cities.

It still is—14 years since the passage of Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. The garbage dump is now called a “sanitary landfill” but that is a half-truth, which is bigger than a plain lie. By law, there should be no more dumping there by this time, but the garbage collector contracted by the Quezon City government continues to expand the dumping area while demolishing our houses. Why should we be the ones to leave?

RA 9003 mandates segregation, composting and recycling of wastes in every barangay. The garbage dump is destroying the environment and poses a danger to the health of the residents of, including those working in, Lupang Pangako and nearby communities, among them subdivisions of the rich, the Batasang Pambansa complex and La Mesa Dam, Metro Manila’s reservoir of drinking water.

In 2000, during a storm, the garbage mountain crashed, killing more than a thousand people, but only about 200 bodies were recovered. With the continuing operation of the dump, justice eludes our beloved dead and we, the survivors, continue to suffer injustice.

Our paradise has become our calvary. Jesus Christ died on Calvary which, we are told, was also a dump. The leaders in our Lord’s time killed Him on Calvary. Today, Christ continues to be crucified in the Payatas calvary where residents easily get sick, and may die anytime prematurely because the air, soil and water—all of God’s creation—have been polluted, contaminated and degraded. As Christ said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto Me.”

There are other calvaries in our country where the environment is being abused at the expense of communities. That is why Supertyphoon “Yolanda” happened. And most of the victims are the poor like us, who are the reason for the Pope’s visit.

We are very grateful for God’s love, which the Pope wants us to feel. May those who are in power in our country feel the love, too, so that they will close the Payatas dump immediately.

—LEONITA D. PANOY, on behalf of members of Mamamayan ng Lupang Pangako para sa Pagsasara ng Payatas Dumpsite, Phases 1,2,3,4, lupangpangako1234@gmail.com