Cleaning up Porac
HOPE SPRINGS eternal. That truism finding greatest relevance at every start of a new year.
So 2011 may yet be the harbinger of good things to come for the Sta. Cruz, Manibaug-Paralaya and Cutcut communities on the very verge of despair over the pestilence of stench and flies that have enveloped them for the past 20 years.
Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda in no uncertain terms has enjoined Porac Mayor Condralito de la Cruz not to issue business permits to hog and poultry farms “while there are problems and complaints” being raised against them.
The governor emphasized that the local government – in close coordination with the Environment Management Bureau – ensured that pertinent environmental laws and regulations are being strictly followed by the farms before any permit is issued to them.
She even suggested to De la Cruz and Vice Mayor Dexter David to visit the farm of Mayor Romy Pecson in Magalang and learn how it managed to control the stench.
I don’t know if I carried the stink of Porac pigs or I looked anything like them but talks on the Porac pollution problem are never far whenever I meet the governor.
Yes, it was such talk last Monday at her office that gave rise to the media reports of her “strong suggestion” to the Porac LGUs to cease from issuing business permits to the farms.
We were into the subject with reporters Cha Cayabyab of Sun-Star Pampanga and this paper’s Joey Pavia when former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came.
“Ateng, this is in your district,” the governor told Congresswoman GMA, adumbrating – okay, outlining broadly – the Porac pollution problem as it poses a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of the communities and as it impacts most negatively on current and potential investments not only in the municipality but in nearby Angeles City. .
It surprised us most pleasantly when GMA said she has been consulting with people “in the know” – not necessarily those at the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources – on pollution control in hog and poultry farms.
“Larry Mendoza (former transportation and communications secretary) has a piggery right beside The Farm at San Benito (a medical and wellness resort in Batangas) and there is not the faintest odor (emanating from it). I asked him how he managed to control the pollution (attendant to pigs) and take us to a tour of his farm,’ GMA told us. “He said it would be more informative and fruitful (for our purposes) if we take a tour of the Monterey Farms. So I will call Ramon Ang.”
The governor and GMA taking on the Porac pollution problem enough to rekindle the dying embers of hope for a definitive, ff not an immediate, solution.
Porac Councilor Mike Tapang – the only local official with a clear and correct appreciation of the pollution problem, the only local official with enough commitment and political will to take it by the horns – could have never been more right in saying: “The intervention of the governor and GMA will make the big difference in solving the long-time problem on piggeries and poultries in Porac.”
Tapang has his own frustrations with the methodical indifference and measured inaction of the Porac LGU to the pestilence caused by the hog and poultry farms.
In October last year, Tapang filed Municipal Resolution No. 47-2010 creating a task force to monitor and inspect the piggeries and poultries in the town.
Mandated by of Executive Order No. 13-2010, dated Nov. 2, 2010, the Clean Air and Water Monitoring Task Force comprised 12 members from the town’s sanitation, health and engineering offices, staff of the EMB and representatives of the affected citizens and NGOs as the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement and Krusada Kontra Amoy.
The task force managed on December 9 to inspect Edward Farm in Sta. Cruz. Samplings were taken from the effluents coming out of the farm’s wastewater treatment facility even as the task force noted the non-operation of the farm’s bio-digester and the ambient smell of manure around the area.
The following day, only Tapang, PGKM chair Pert Cruz, environmentalist Sonny Dobles and the suffering residents found themselves at the meeting place for the day’s inspection. All representatives from the local government and the EMB failed to show up.
And that was the end of the task force.
Yes, the intervention of Governor Pineda and GMA may well indeed spell a big difference in finding the solution to Porac’s stench and flies.
So 2011 may yet be the harbinger of good things to come for the Sta. Cruz, Manibaug-Paralaya and Cutcut communities on the very verge of despair over the pestilence of stench and flies that have enveloped them for the past 20 years.
Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda in no uncertain terms has enjoined Porac Mayor Condralito de la Cruz not to issue business permits to hog and poultry farms “while there are problems and complaints” being raised against them.
The governor emphasized that the local government – in close coordination with the Environment Management Bureau – ensured that pertinent environmental laws and regulations are being strictly followed by the farms before any permit is issued to them.
She even suggested to De la Cruz and Vice Mayor Dexter David to visit the farm of Mayor Romy Pecson in Magalang and learn how it managed to control the stench.
I don’t know if I carried the stink of Porac pigs or I looked anything like them but talks on the Porac pollution problem are never far whenever I meet the governor.
Yes, it was such talk last Monday at her office that gave rise to the media reports of her “strong suggestion” to the Porac LGUs to cease from issuing business permits to the farms.
We were into the subject with reporters Cha Cayabyab of Sun-Star Pampanga and this paper’s Joey Pavia when former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came.
“Ateng, this is in your district,” the governor told Congresswoman GMA, adumbrating – okay, outlining broadly – the Porac pollution problem as it poses a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of the communities and as it impacts most negatively on current and potential investments not only in the municipality but in nearby Angeles City. .
It surprised us most pleasantly when GMA said she has been consulting with people “in the know” – not necessarily those at the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources – on pollution control in hog and poultry farms.
“Larry Mendoza (former transportation and communications secretary) has a piggery right beside The Farm at San Benito (a medical and wellness resort in Batangas) and there is not the faintest odor (emanating from it). I asked him how he managed to control the pollution (attendant to pigs) and take us to a tour of his farm,’ GMA told us. “He said it would be more informative and fruitful (for our purposes) if we take a tour of the Monterey Farms. So I will call Ramon Ang.”
The governor and GMA taking on the Porac pollution problem enough to rekindle the dying embers of hope for a definitive, ff not an immediate, solution.
Porac Councilor Mike Tapang – the only local official with a clear and correct appreciation of the pollution problem, the only local official with enough commitment and political will to take it by the horns – could have never been more right in saying: “The intervention of the governor and GMA will make the big difference in solving the long-time problem on piggeries and poultries in Porac.”
Tapang has his own frustrations with the methodical indifference and measured inaction of the Porac LGU to the pestilence caused by the hog and poultry farms.
In October last year, Tapang filed Municipal Resolution No. 47-2010 creating a task force to monitor and inspect the piggeries and poultries in the town.
Mandated by of Executive Order No. 13-2010, dated Nov. 2, 2010, the Clean Air and Water Monitoring Task Force comprised 12 members from the town’s sanitation, health and engineering offices, staff of the EMB and representatives of the affected citizens and NGOs as the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement and Krusada Kontra Amoy.
The task force managed on December 9 to inspect Edward Farm in Sta. Cruz. Samplings were taken from the effluents coming out of the farm’s wastewater treatment facility even as the task force noted the non-operation of the farm’s bio-digester and the ambient smell of manure around the area.
The following day, only Tapang, PGKM chair Pert Cruz, environmentalist Sonny Dobles and the suffering residents found themselves at the meeting place for the day’s inspection. All representatives from the local government and the EMB failed to show up.
And that was the end of the task force.
Yes, the intervention of Governor Pineda and GMA may well indeed spell a big difference in finding the solution to Porac’s stench and flies.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 9:00 AM
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