• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The scheduled hearing of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committees on Laws, Ordinances and Good Government; and Environment and Ecology July 14 on the Bacolod sanitary landfill continued despite the boycott from environmental groups.
Councilor Al Victor Espino, chairperson of the SP Committee on Laws, Ordinances, and Good Government, waited at the SP session hall from 10:30 a.m. but no opposing group representatives showed up.
The joint committee hearing was agreed on during the SP session morning of July 8 to tackle the request of Victorias City to temporarily dispose of its residual waste in the landfill in Barangay Felisa, and the opposition from various groups.
But that afternoon, Mayor Greg Gasataya said that Victorias has withdrawn its request as it took note of opposition from residents of Felisa.
But Espino said that despite the withdrawal of Victorias, the hearing was not cancelled so as to address the issues raised by groups that submitted position papers, including the Negrosanon Initiative for Climate and the Environment (NICE) and the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance.
“We wanted to proceed with the committee hearing but for a different purpose—this time, once and for all, to shed light on the opposition to the proposal. I would have preferred to answer them and listen to them. This would have been the proper venue to hear the citizens’ demands,” he explained.
NICE and the Zero Waste Alliance Negros Occidental confirmed the boycott and claimed that the environment leading up to the hearing was not conducive to a respectful, constructive dialogue.
“We did not feel that our concerns and participation would be treated with the respect that meaningful public engagement requires,” the groups said in a statement July 14.
They pointed to public remarks that labeled their advocacy as “uneducated” or “out of ignorance”, adding that the hearing appeared designed to “educate” stakeholders rather than genuinely deliberate on community concerns.
But Espino said he did not mean any insult. “Let me reiterate: when you call somebody uneducated, it is not (about) your educational status, it is because you are uneducated on the topics that are involved. There is a difference, look it up in the dictionary. I did not mean any insult.”
The group, meanwhile, requested the SP committees on Environment and Health to convene a dedicated public forum to address the ongoing, long-term environmental and health impacts affecting Barangay Felisa and Bacolod’s broader solid waste crisis. | TMD
