LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government implemented the closure of operational chicken dung businesses in barangay Shilan after adequate time was given to them to relocate their environmentally-critical business outside the municipality.
The closure orders were served by the municipal government and the La Trinidad Municipal Police Station to some 10 chicken dung traders in barangay Shilan to help rid the locality of the declared nuisance that caused concerned residents to petition the removal of this business within their community.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda expressed his gratitude to the affected chicken dung traders for voluntarily relocating to the nearby town of Tublay considering that their continuous operation on the municipality is in violation of an existing administrative order and the earlier decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) that declared the chicken dung trade as a nuisance.
Last year, the municipal government ordered the closure of the operation of chicken dung businesses in the locality but gave time to the traders to either close their staging areas or relocate outside of the town.
The municipal chief executive ordered the barangay officials and the law enforcers to conduct regular inspection of the previous sites of the chicken dung business to prevent the traders from returning to their closed operating sites to ensure the protection of the health of the residents and the environment.
Earlier, concerned residents petitioned the municipal government to close the operation of the chicken dung businesses located in barangay Shilan as this is in violation of an existing order prohibiting the sale, disposal and storage of chicken dung in any part of the municipality and the absence of an ordinance regulating this business based on a CA ruling declaring chicken dung as a nuisance.
Chicken dung is commonly used by vegetable farmers from Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao as fertilizer for their agricultural vegetable production.
The affected residents claimed that the obnoxious odor emanating from the stockpiles of chicken dung in the municipality greatly contributed to the increase of the population of flies that in turn contributed to the spread of illnesses, apart from making the area unsightly.
Despite the presence of an administrative order prohibiting the sale, disposal and storage of chicken dung in the municipality, chicken dung traders still continued with their trade that prompted the concerned residents of Shilan to submit several petitions calling on the municipal government to stop this business activity since it is posing a serious threat to their health and the state of the environment.
La Trinidad is the center of commerce and trade in the province hosting the operation of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post being managed by the municipal government and the Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center.
