Local officials warned
versus open dumpsites
BY NANETTE GUADALQUIVER

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources yesterday warned local officials whose areas still maintain open dumpsites, including 12 in Negros Occidental, to close these facilities within six months, or charges will be filed against them.

“I am giving the local government units a grace period of six months to comply with the law,” Environment Secretary Lito Atienza said in a statement from his office.

But he said that after two months, DENR regional officials will start checking on the compliance of the concerned LGUs.

Negros Occidental mayors are leaving for Singapore and Malaysia to learn more about solid waste management and other programs that may be applicable in their towns and cities, Manapla Mayor Manuel Escalante said yesterday.

Escalante, president of the Negros Association of Chief Executives, said the trip is being arranged by the League of Municipalities of the Philippines with the Malaysian and Singaporean governments, but the mayors will be personally paying for their trips.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday gave marching orders to the House Committee on Energy, of which five solons from Negros Occidental are members, to conduct marathon sessions and expedite the passage of various measures that would protect the public and Filipino consumers from the spiraling cost of fuel and electricity.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, Energy Committee vice chairman, yesterday said now that Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo (Pampanga, 2nd District), who chairs the committee, has returned  from abroad, they can get down to work.

To cushion the effects of the rising prices of fuel among the solutions being eyed are the suspension of the Value Added Tax on oil and the possibility of the government’s reacquiring control of Petron, of which it owns a big chunk, he said.