By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
THE Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday gave city hall until May 2017 to shut down the city dump in Upper Dagong, Carmen, and build a new one elsewhere in compliance to the Ecological Waste Management Act or else.
The deadline was given by a three-person panel formed by the ombudsman to look into complaints about the continuing violation of RA 9003 by local governments across Mindanao.
Moreno and members of the city council and their predecessors were among the many people charged with violation of RA 9003, and who were summoned to Davao City the other day to explain why they have not followed the law that should have been followed years ago.
Moreno and other local officials were given six months from Wednesday to establish another sanitary landfill.
The present city dump would be closed down and undergo rehabilitation.
The panel warned that Moreno and members of the city council would be punished unless it complied with the order within six months.
The order came as a result of a complaint filed by Romeo Hidalgo, commissioner of the Solid Waste Management Commission, who accused local officials of turning a blind eye to the health and environmental risks being posed by the open dumpsite.
Hidalgo said Sabdullah Abubacar, regional director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), has long ordered city hall to close down the city dump in Carmen.
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