Meanwhile in her barrio: she cowers in fear

Timeline

The Sto. Domingo Municipal Dumpsite

Stupidity & Abuse

July 2001 – Butch Tadena’s first term as mayor. He requested help for the mounting garbage at the public market from Ernesto Tadeja. Tadeja volunteered his possession for temporary dumping to relieve and clean the public market where people from Sto. Tomas also buy.

2002 – Tadeja, through a family member wrote a letter inquiring from the mayor what are the future plans for the dumpsite. No definite reply, too many verbal promises.

November 2004 – The people of Sto. Tomas submitted a Petition for the closure of the Municipal Dumpsite due to a one-sided affair – to the detriment of their groundwater and threat to their health and safety. They proposed an option to continue but provide livelihood to the people of Sto. Tomas by converting biodegradable waste into organic fertilizer. No official acted.

Mid 2005 – a single human barricade finally made the former mayor Butch Tadena to conduct dialogue with the Barangay – with the presence of former vice mayor Bong Tobias, municipal engineer Zaldy Rosario, former MPDC Dario Tacad & barangay officials together with the Petitioner. The former mayor promised to abide by the legally prescribed requirements, probably referring to RA 9003. The LGU only distributed generic drugs for one time, bought a parcel of land in the barangay, and transferred the dumpsite nearer to the river.

-          To compensate for lack of any benefit, the punong barangay accepted hospital waste from the Metro Vigan Cooperative Hospital through Tomtom de Vera’s brother Dr. Jojo de Vera. It was rumoured that Tadeja was paid a monthly rental of P4,000 only. How much was Jojo De Vera earning can only be confirmed by the MVCH.

July 2011 – The Punong Barangay with a little help, started to look for possible ways to lessen the negative impact of the dumpsite to the barangay. He first approached Congressman Ryan Singson who immediately provided a project.  In the project proposal verifiable at the office of Cong Singson states: “The barangay is currently the Municipal dumpsite for more than 12 years now and has neither actual protection nor programs for it. Turning the biodegradable waste into organic fertilizer has been proposed in 2005 but the previous administration failed to act on the proposal. With a new Chief Executive Officer, it is hoped that the proposal will be reconsidered,” referring to the 2004 proposal.

August 2011 – The Punong barangay started verbal negotiation with the current administration for the possible development of the 2004 proposal.  Instead of helping, the LGU delayed the fund released by Cong. Singson in November 2011, issued only a notice to the barangay in 20 January 2012, and required “deed of donation of the forest land or MOA between the Barangay Gov’t & the forest land owner” (attached).

October 2011 – Adrian Madriaga, 6 yo drowned and his body lost for 3 days in the 20-30 feet deep dumpsite pit. All 3 of his companions nearly drowned as well.

November 2011 – The Petitioner reiterated the November 2004 Barangay Petition with a letter to the Mayor and SB. The LGU did not respond nor acknowledged the letter at all.

December 16 2011 – The case regarding the dumpsite against the administration of Sto. Domingo LGU was filed at the Ombudsman and pending decision.

February 2012 – a reliable source relayed a statement from the mayor to the Petitioner, “Ania ti kayat ta _ (Petitioner)? Intono kuwan, siak ti nagkutin,” ("what does she want? Sooner or later, I'd be the one to move..." when the mayor was relaying about the dialogue requested by Board Member Roberto Tudayan. The Petitioner was not convinced Amado Lito Tadena said that. "I found him to be more amicable & civilized than that."

2 March 2012 – A dialogue was conducted with Board Member Tudayan by Tadeja, the Petitioner, newly designated LGU ENRO Alex Dorate, and social worker Sesie de Vera. BM Tudayan was bewildered why there was no action at all by the LGU. De Vera insinuated the mayor doing the barangay a favor by closing the hospital dumpsite. The Petitioner forgot to ask if De Vera was aware how much her brother –in-law Jojo de Vera earned from the deal with the MVCH. (Overheard reliable sources snicker about underhanded monickers like Lee Majors and Limahong & said that they are sure pirates will not be had with any deal.)

23 March 2012 – Dialogue at the dumpsite.

Cowering in Fear,

The Petitioner

Abusive Former Mayor Floro Tadena

The municipal dumpsite of Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur is a sad story of abuse and indifference by the elected leaders of the town and barangay. It was a case of a bad deal.

In July 2001 after elected on his first term as mayor of Sto. Domingo, Floro Tadena requested the punong barangay of probably the smallest-voting barangay but which election results showed highest percentage of support to Tadena - Sto. Tomas a favor: a temporary dumpsite for the mounting market garbage. The punong barangay out of genuine goodwill offered a land portion he possessed.

But probably due to kapalmuks (traditional politicos are generally afflicted with it), Floro kept dumping until November 2004 when the people no longer could stand the threat to their groundwater and health. 100% of the households use natural groundwater for their use and drinks. Then of course, there is the health hazard brought naturally by garbage - air, land and water pollution / contamination.

Floro went as far as dumping for free, despite the RA 9003 provision (that is the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 law) under Chapter 4 section 45 that: "(5) Incentives to Host LGUs - who host waste management facilities shall be entitled to incentives", the abusive mayor only shrugged his shoulders despite the annual savings they posted. In addition, the people at barangay Sto. Tomas have their own backyard pits to throw their wastes so that they hardly used the dumpsite for their own. Today, several metro poblacion barangays benefit from it aside from the public market and various LGU facilities. On the other end, Sto. Tomas never benefited a single centavo nor any thing at all for the risks and hazards they had to endure.

In November 2004, the people of Barangay Sto. Tomas  submitted their Petition for the Closure of the dumpsite for the various reasons stated above. In mid-2005, Floro went to the Barangay for a dialogue promising to abide by the prescribed RA 9003 operation of dumpsites.

He failed to act on his verbal promises leading to the death of a six-year old who freely strayed at the hazardous dumpsite together with his friends to fetch a ball floating on top of the 25-30 feet deep garbage pit (above photo). When sent a reminder about the petition, Floro acted as if nothing happened. In Friday, December 15, 2011, the petitioners through their spokesperson filed a case against Floro Tadena and the current Municipal Solid Waste Management Chairman (it cannot be avoided although the latter, Floro's own brother, maybe innocent at most) at the Ombudsman which was subscribed by lawyer Alex Ramos. The petitioners hope that their case will be judiciously considered.


In the Philippines where democracy is for the people with money, by the people with money, and of the people with money, this is of course wishful thinking, but we can wait for the mean time.