Smelly Dump of Morong

Found this letter to the editor published by Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Will gov't do something about smelly dump?

October 31, 2006
Philippine Daily Inquirer

How queer it was to see on TV Casimiro Ynares Jr., general manager of Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), closing two restaurants in Quezon City for non-compliance with the LLDA's anti-pollution regulation on liquid discharge. Yet, for 20 years now, the Ynareses who alternately but uninterruptedly ruled Rizal as governors of the province, have never lifted a finger on the plea of the residents of Morong, Rizal, who have been asking the Kapitolyo to close the open dump adjacent to the national road at Sitio Taghangin, Barangay Maybancal (the dengue capital of late, remember?).

The dump, which has grown larger in area through the years, every day emits an obnoxious and toxic smoke, and simply smells like hell. Even the leachate seeps down to a lake that is two kilometers away. Ask the residents and commuters of nearby towns, and they will tell you "something is rotten in ... " that the LLDA, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Kapitolyo can do nothing about. What compliance? What health hazard? Well, look at the bright side -- come December, when the air gets dense, the place will again look like "foggy San Francisco." Just close your nose.

CLARITO F. SORIANO,
Rotary Club of Lakeshore Rizal
Morong, Rizal (via e-mail)