CANTILAN – A garbage crisis looms in this town  of 30,000 as the municipal dump  in Magasang was ordered closed by  the barangay council after its repeated demands  to the town government to build a promised recycling facility  fell on  deaf ears.

The Barangay Council  of Magasang issued the notice of closure after the municipal government , sources said, reneged on its promise to build a Material Recovery Facility  (MRF) in the open dump located along the  Magasang-Consuelo road . 

As a result of the closure of the eight-year-old dump ,  the scheduled daily rounds of the town’s garbage truck have  lately been erratic , forcing Cantilangnons to bury or burn their trash in their own backyards.

The situation worsened , sources said, during the Christmas break , when  garbage collection halted  for  days.

It is not that the closure of the dumpsite  was unforeseen, some residents , however, lamented.  

It was learned that for years now , the  leaders  and residents of Magasang have been pestering  municipal officials to make good on their  promise to construct  an MRF  in the dump, which is located a kilometer from the national highway.

The MRF , they said, will make the dump comply with  that Ecological  Solid Waste Management Act  of 2002  , which requires such  a waste segregation facility be built  on site.

Actually, the law , also known as Republic Act 9003, bans open garbage dumpsites and mandates the shift to sanitary landfills whose intake can be reduced by organized recycling and proper segregation of wastes.

“When their request was routinely turned down by town officials, the patience of the leaders of Magasang simply snapped  , “ a Cantilan resident said . “ We can’t blame them because for too long  they’ve been the town’s garbage can and nothing  has been done to address this problem .”

Reports said  the “shutdown”  resolution, shepherded  by Barangay Chairman Digoy Eleazar , was approved unanimously by Magasang’s Sangguniang Barangay .

Incidentally, Eleazar is reportedly “the last  kapitan standing” among Cantilan’s barangay chairmen who has  stuck to his  “no mining” stance on MarcVentures drive  to bulldoze  Cantilan’s  forested watershed.

The resolution also appears to have the backing of the barangay.

“This is a not merely about implementing the law.  This is also a health issue as well as an environment issue, “  a Magasang resident said.

Due to improper processing of garbage , runoff  from the dump has been polluting surrounding farms , groundwater , and  the nearby Tambis river, and poses health hazard to the community .

Such phenomenon is called “leaching, “ , in which “leachate” , which is  the product of  decomposing solid waste mixing with the percolating sweat of the dump , flows out of the waste material  in  liquid form.

“It is not easy to host a dump site. We in Magasang are sacrificing a lot by allowing our place to serve as Cantilan’s garbage can. The least that the Tribunal can do is to ease our plight by building  an MRF, “ one  post by a  Magasang resident in the Facebook social site said.

While some town officials have blamed funding lack  as the culprit why the MRF , which is projected to cost P1 million by one unconfirmed estimate, has not been built,  Tribunal sources said  the “poverty defense” does not hold water.

If the money spent by officials in attending seminars in Cebu, Manila  and  Mindanao   cities on the issue of waste segregation were  instead spent in building the MRF the latter would have been halfway to completion by now, a Cantilan teacher said .

“It is a question of prioritizing. But the reluctance to spend for a  dumpsite could be traced to the fact that garbage is not a sexy issue and definitely  not a vote-getter, unlike  Mardi Gras-like street dancing , “ the teacher added.   

While the stench of   Cantilan’s  garbage may soon waft in the air , a local businessman expressed optimism of something positive coming out of the stinking  episode.

  “What is happening  now  is a wake-up call for the whole town . We have to realize that we can’t just throw our garbage irresponsibly . There should be a long-term plan on how  we should handle our garbage which includes teaching people the right way to dispose their trash properly, “ he said.

One can only hope that Cantilan  officials share the businessman’s  optimism and , amid the full-press wooing  for votes, be jolted into ending the  town’s “dirty , stinking  secret.”