BONTOC, Mountain Province – Mayor-elect Jerome Tudlong, Jr. assured that the municipal government will focus on the eventual operation of the town’s-controlled dump facility to effectively and efficiently address its garbage disposal woes to ensure the sustainable preservation and protection of the environment and the health of the people.
Tudlong, who is succeeding outgoing Mayor Franklin Odsey by noon of June 30, 2022, stated that the present administration identified its controlled dump facility within the municipality which will eventually be operationalized to address the long-running solid waste disposal problem of the municipality.
However, he emphasized that municipal government needs to aggressively remind the residents of their obligation to segregate and recycle their solid waste in their homes to help in reducing the volume of the garbage to be dumped in the facility to extend its economic life.
The incoming mayor claimed that it is also important for the local government to embrace other strategies to improve the information and education campaign to convince people to fulfill their obligation in the segregation of their waste at source to help in reducing the volume of garbage being dumped in the aforesaid facility.
Under the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (9003) or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, all local governments had been mandated to close the operation of their respective open dumpsites and subsequently establish their own engineered sanitary landfills (ESLs) or controlled dump facilities for the health and safety of their constituents and for the preservation and protection of the environment.
Tudlong encouraged the residents to comply with their obligation to segregate their garbage at source as responsible citizens by cooperating with the municipal government to ensure the successful implementation of the town’s solid waste management program.
The Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau is constantly monitoring the compliance of local governments to the pertinent provisions of RA 9003 to ensure that local governments are able to comply with the established standards in the garbage collection and disposal problems that the same have been encountering since the implementation of the law over two decades ago.
Bontoc is the capital town of Mountain Province and is the center of trade and commerce as well as education, with most of the business activities done there apart from the presence of private and public education institutions catering to the education needs of the youth.
Tudlong assured the residents that his administration will practice good governance to ensure transparency and accountability in the overall efforts of the local government to elevate the status of the municipality to greater heights.
