CITY OF MALOLOS—Alleged harassment of the sanitary landfill operation here is making operator Ramon Angelo seriously consider shutting down his business.

The sanitary landfill operated by the Waste Custodian Management (Wacuman) is located in sitio Tiakad, barangay San Mateo, Norzagaray. It was inaugurated on January 18 this year.

Angelo said they have been subjected to some “harassments,” initially, regarding its environmental compliance certificate (ECC), and now regarding property ownership of the land where the project stands.

Oscar Cabanayan, regional director of the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, in Central Luzon, earlier told BusinessMirror the sanitary landfill has an ECC.

On January 23 this year shortly after the inauguration of the sanitary landfill, Cabanayan’s office and representatives of the National Solid Waste Management Commission even had discussions with Wacuman’s project management team “on pertinent activities that they [Wacuman] must undertake in compliance with conditions of the environmental compliance certificate issued on June 23, 2006.”

Angelo told BusinessMirror that “after infusing millions of pesos in the project and three years under harassments without legal basis on the issue of the property ownership, I am seriously considering completely shutting down its operations with a heavy heart, knowing that the project can be of help in the growing garbage problem not only in Bulacan but also for Metro Manila.”

He said they were prepared to go full blast when the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) filed in court a temporary restraining order because the ownership of the property on which the sanitary landfill is located is under question.

After the court issued a preliminary injunction, Angelo said he sought to have an amicable settlement with the BSP and “to seek out the truth, only to find conflicting issues that have been plaguing the operations of the project, and face a blank wall of a very unbelievable and conflicting arrangement implied by the central bank.”

Without giving full details on what he meant by “unbelievable and conflicting arrangement implied by the central bank,” Angelo said he will make a last-ditch effort to solve the problem before finally deciding on whether to shut it down.

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Bulacan landfill operator, lamenting harassment, says he’s ready to give up

CITY OF MALOLOS—Alleged harassment of the sanitary landfill operation here is making operator Ramon Angelo seriously consider shutting down his business.