Malacañang on Wednesday thumbed down the request of Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo to lift the 60-day suspension order of the Rizal provincial government against him as the concerned parties, including the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), have yet to comment and give its recommendations on the matter.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told Palace reporters in an interview that Cuerpo requested a meeting with him to seek a stay in the execution of his suspension order, but it was learned that the local chief executive only submitted his appeal to Malacanang’s legal office the day before.

“I think his purpose is to stay the execution of the suspension. We don’t want to give an order for the stay of execution [of the suspension] until we have gotten the comment of the DILG,” Ermita said.

He said since the case involved a local government matter, “it should be referred to the DILG for its comment and recommendation because that is an exhaustion of administrative remedy going all the way up to the President.”

Ermita said Manuel Gaite,  Deputy executive secretary for legal affairs, has given the respondents—Rizal Gov. Casimiro “Jun” Ynares III, the Rizal provincial board and the concerned contractor—five days to submit their comments and recommendations to his office.

Ermita said with the suspension order in effect, it follows that the vice mayor would be the acting mayor.

Cuerpo had earlier vowed to defy the suspension order owing to his alleged “wanton disregard for competent authority” following the implementation of a municipal order requiring users of the Rodriguez sanitary landfill to pay a development exaction fee to the municipal government.

He had claimed that the municipal government has control of the landfill, which serves most of Metro Manila, as upheld by a DILG opinion in October last year and by the Office of the President through a ruling issued by Ermita on November 23, 2007.

Meanwhile, Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) eased up the worries of Metro Manila residents of a possible garbage crisis following the decision of the local government of Rodriguez to close down the two landfills in the town.

Fernando said there are other dumps that could be used for Metro Manila’s garbage. Among the sites prepared are the 18-hectare landfill in Doña Remedios Trinidad, Norzagaray, Bulacan, which has already secured an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

On Wednesday the Rodriguez council decided to withdraw hosting the garbage of Metro Manila. It came in the wake of the 60-day preventive suspension on Cuerpo by the Rizal Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Fernando said MMDA people are now diverting the garbage collected to other areas owing to the closure of the twin landfills. He said they will not risk the safety of the drivers of the garbage trucks against the people blocking the way to the landfills.

The other facilities that the MMDA is looking into are in Tanza, Navotas; San Pedro, Laguna; and in Clark, Pampanga.

Meanwhile, an officer of the Sagip Sierra Madre Multisectoral Coordinating Council in Bulacan expressed apprehension over the possible operation of the newly inaugurated sanitary landfill in Norzagaray town.

Bro. Martin Francisco, executive director of Lake Galilee-Katribu Foundation, in a statement said, “It is the hope of the environmentalists in Bulacan that the issue of leachate leak, ancestral domain and the current law on solid-waste management will be considered before the LGUs [provincial government and the municipal level] will push this suicide [operation of the sanitary landfill].”

This reaction was made after the DENR disclosed that it has prepared two alternative sites in time for the closure of the sanitary landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal.

Bro. Martin said the Diocese of Malolos has made a position paper dated March 30, 1999, opposing the construction of the landfill in Doña Remedios Trinidad when an attempt was made to construct a landfill in the town as the alternative dump for Metro Manila’s garbage.  (With C. Mocon and R. Lazaro)

Presidential guards among Lozada’s welcomers at Naia

SENATORS who went to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) for an ocular inspection, and to retrace the movement of national broadband network (NBN)-deal investigation witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., stumbled upon security logbooks that show that Presidential Security Group (PSG) personnel are among those who escorted Lozada out of the airport when he arrived February 5.

GEN. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Armed Forces chief of staff, placed all military units around the country on Thursday under a “full state of preparedness” but clarified that the stance was not taken in preparation for Friday’s expected massive rally by antigovernment groups but by forces out to exploit the situation.

THE raging controversy over alleged commissions sought by certain officials for the aborted $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal has sparked soul-searching—and new challenges—to business.

THREE Catholic bishops from Northern Philippines are calling for an “earnest” search for the truth, fair media treatment of raging issues and the investigation of controversies in legal venues.

Baguio City—Although the prevalence of HIV in the Philippines is relatively low, the country’s anticondom advocacies could result in an “explosion” in the disease, a group of nongovernment organizations warned.

PAMPANGA Gov. Eddie Panlilio on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing its resolution allowing the election protest of his political rival, Lilia Pineda, to proceed.

Malacañang on Wednesday thumbed down the request of Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo to lift the 60-day suspension order of the Rizal provincial government against him as the concerned parties, including the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), have yet to comment and give its recommendations on the matter.