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CEBU City – The Court of Appeals Special 19th Division here ordered the permanent closure of the city government-owned 15.4-hectare sanitary landfill in Barangay Inayawan until its full rehabilitation.
The local government under Mayor Tomas Osmeña must “permanently cease and desist from dumping garbage or solid waste” at the landfill but continue its rehabilitation, the court said in a 25-page decision.
The court granted the petition for a writ of kalikasan filed by Councilor Joel Garganera, “[representing] the people of the cities of Cebu and Talisay.”
Garganera sought a temporary environmental protection order against Osmeña and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 7.
Penned by Associate Justice Edgardo L. Delos Santos, the court’s division chairman, and concurred by associate justices Edward Contreras and Germano Francisco Legaspi, the decision also ordered the EMB to regularly monitor the city government’s strict compliance.
The EMB is under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Co-respondents in the case were EMB-7 officer-in-charge William Cuñado and DENR regional director Emma Melana, in representation of Secretary Gina Lopez.
In case of noncompliance, the EMB must file or recommend the filing of appropriate criminal, civil and administrative charges before the proper authorities against the responsible persons, the decision said.
The EMB was also ordered to submit to the appellate court a monthly progress report on the local government’s compliance “until the rehabilitation of the Inayawan landfill is complete and sufficient according to the agency’s standards.”
The landfill started operating in 1993. In 2015 then mayor Michael Rama ordered it closed, but Osmeña ordered it reopened in July. (PNA)
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