Mayor Honey Lacuna commended the Manila City Hall Task Force (MCHTF) for the successful interception of an industrial truck illegally dumping garbage along Mel Lopez Boulevard in Tondo, with a call to all residents to report and if possible, document such unscrupulous acts of sabotaging the city’s garbage collection efforts, so that they can be dealt with accordingly.
It was learned that the Department of Public Services (DPS) forwarded to the MCHTF a complaint regarding the said truck’s illegal dumping of huge volumes of garbage in the city on Thursday evening, January 9, 2025.
The said dumping of trash in the area of Barangay 105 from the truck bearing plate number RJ- 899, was caught on video.
Citing a report from the MCHTF, the mayor said that the truck’s ownership was traced to a junk shop operator who is also a resident of Aroma Compound at Brgy. 105 in Tondo, who confessed that his two male employees aged 60 and 24, were the ones using his truck during the time that the dumping took place.
Said truck was immediately impounded at the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau’s Central Impounding Station.
The truck owner’s two employees were charged with violation of Republic Act 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office.
Lacuna assured that the city government of Manila has intensified its investigation and vigilance for other similar possible incidents taking place in other parts of the city or the involvement of even larger groups in the illegal dumping of garbage, in an apparent attempt to make it seem that the city’s garbage collection system is not efficient.
She urged the public to relay any such information or evidence which may help the investigation, to the Department of Public Services through its landline 5310-1232.
The lady mayor lamented that in an effort to make it appear that the new garbage collectors are not at par with the previous one, or that her administration is not up to the challenge of keeping the city clean, the saboteurs are sacrificing the health of the Manila residents themselves.
“Nakakalungkot lang na dahil sa maruming pulitika, ni hindi na isinaalang-alang ang samang dulot sa kalusugan ng mga Manilenyo ng mga itinatambak na basura sa Maynila. ‘Wag naman sama puro pansariling interes lang,” she sighed.
It will be recalled that the city got the services of two new garbage contractors after Leonel, which was contracted by the previous administration, no longer joined in the required bidding for unclear reasons.
Though its contract was effective up to the end of December, Leonel reportedly no longer collected garbage in the last couple of days of 2024, resulting in an increase in the trash volume in the entire city of up to 400 percent.
