BAGUIO CITY—Sen. Loren Legarda appealed to the local officials “to take a decisive and effective action” to solve the waste problem in the city and even donated P1.5 million from her Priority Development Assistance Fund (Pdaf) to speed up the action.

Legarda, who was here over the weekend, visited the affected area of the garbage avalanche along Asin Road in Tuba, Benguet. The incident last Aug. 27 at the height of Typhoon Mina killed six persons due to the collapse of the Irisan dump’s retaining wall.

“There are existing laws to prevent this from happening. This should serve as a wake-up call for the strict implementation of the law on waste management, especially now that we are facing threats of extreme weather events that can trigger such environmental disasters,” said Legarda, who authored Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

Legarda said she challenged Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan to strictly implement proper segregation, recycling, composting, collection, transportation, storage, treatment and disposal of solid waste which is embodied in the solid-waste management law.

“It is unfortunate that we have this incident. It boils down on political will and cooperation of the community. But I don’t blame the mayor for this. Instead, the Baguio community should now help themselves and adopt best-environmental practice in ecological-waste management,” Legarda told the BusinessMirror.

The incident, she added, is also a reminder of the Payatas tragedy which revealed ineffective waste management that killed over 300 people and left hundreds more homeless in 2000.

She reiterated that open and controlled dumps should have been closed and replaced with sanitary landfills five years after the passage of RA 9003.

According to the National Solid Waste Management Commission, there are still 790 open and 382 controlled dumps in operation in the Philippines.

Domogan said the priority at present is to undertake the necessary remedial measures to address the immediate problem which is to rebuild the retaining wall to prevent further accidents and to haul the remaining trash at the dump.

The mayor told Legarda that the city has stopped using the Irisan dumpsite as an open dumping area and merely as a holding point for residual waste in compliance with its status as a controlled-dump facility.

Domogan said the city is pursuing an engineered sanitary landfill deal with Benguet province at a site situated between Kias and Philex Mines.