Balanga City, Bataan—Econest Waste Management Corporation CEO lawyer Beulah Coeli Fiel recently rebutted the cease and desist order issued against them by the local government of Hermosa during a press conference here.
The corporation operates sanitary landfill facilities in Barangay Mambog, Hermosa.
“The power to issue cease and desist order against violations of environmental laws particularly in the area of solid waste management practices belongs to Environmental Management Bureau [EMB],” Fiel pointed out.
“It is also the EMB that issues environmental compliance certificate for the construction and operation of sanitary landfill facilities. The LGU has no power to issue CDO,” she also said.
“Hermosa’s findings of violation against Econest is uncorroborated by the EMB. The EMB had previously visited the Hermosa sanitary landfill facilities and made no derogatory findings against Econest and instead made suggestions on how to better improve our operations,” the CEO said.
“The EMB even recommended the Hermosa sanitary landfill facilities for benchmarking by other LGUs that desire to operate their own SLF,” she added.
“Econest has been experiencing harassments from municipal officers wherein they have inspecting the area even without a mission or travel order presented to the company,” Fiel lamented.
“Mayor Jopet Inton inspected the facility in September 2019 and hurled invectives at the officers of Econest,” she lamented.
“On the issue of accepting mixed waste, the municipality of Hermosa, under the PPP agreement, has agreed to allow a grace period for segregation by other LGUs and other waste generators,” the lawyer explained.
“The PPP agreement allows Econest to accept waste from other clients and the LGU agreed to allow the clients a reasonable period of time to segregate,” she said.