7 years after Payatas tragedy, Philippines still

mired in trash
PUBLISHED ON JULY 9, 2007 AT 3:06 PM ·

MANILA — Seven years after the tragic Payatas landfill landslide, the Philippines remains mired in a worsening
garbage and waste mismanagement crisis that will have a significant impact on community health and well-being,
environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said today.

On July 10, 2000, tragedy literally befell a slum community in Payatas, Quezon City when a hill of garbage
overlooking the area caved in, killing 218 people and leaving 300 families homeless.

“The waste crisis is worsening at a rapid rate. The national government has so far failed to provide and implement
a wide-reaching and viable waste management program which can efficiently process and treat around 13 billion
kilos of solid waste generated annually by around 89 million Filipinos,” Kalikasan PNE National Coordinator
Clemente Bautista Jr. said.

Bautista stressed that “the Arroyo administration’s failure to stem the waste management crisis in the urban and
rural areas was putting the health of millions of communities at risk”.

“In Metro Manila alone, 85 percent of the 6,169 tons of garbage generated daily end up in waterways, such as
creeks and esteros close to both residential and commercial areas, making these a breeding ground for diseases
and floods induced by clogged waterways,” Bautista said.

“In rural areas, the proliferation of garbage dumpsites has also taken over forest areas, watersheds, and even
coastal zones, spreading leachate to otherwise productive soil and water resources and emitting toxic gases into
the air,” Bautista said.

Bautista deplored the national government’s lack of political will to assess and address the problem.

“Our government does not seem to have learned a thing from the Payatas tragedy in 2000,” he said.

“Instead of working to solve the national waste problem and taking mitigating measures to protect the

community’s health, the Arroyo administration is shamefully geared towards importing more hazardous foreign
waste under bilateral agreements such as the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) and
promoting a policy of plunder where foreign mining corporations can extract our mineral reserves and
irresponsibly leave behind their waste to their heart’s content,” he said.

“The Philippine and Japanese governments deny that JPEPA will bring in more foreign waste. But this is
contradicted by the Philippine’s record of foreign waste, which importation only shows that our country is
increasingly being used as an alternative dumpsite for developed nations such as Japan and the United States.

Data from the National Statistics Office showed that in 2001 alone, the Philippines imported a total amount of
foreign waste worth $7,440,264. $2,114,892. Thirty-eight-point-four (38.4) percent of these foreign wastes came
from Japan,” Bautista noted.

Source:
http://www.pinoypress.net/2007/07/09/7-years-after-payatas-tragedy-philippines-still-mired-in-garbage-crisis/
Trahedya sa Payatas
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Ang Trahedya sa Payatas ay tumutukoy sa nangyaring pagguho ng bundok ng mga basura

sa Payatas sa Lungsod ng Quezon noong Hulyo 12, 2000 na ikinasira ng maraming
kabahayan at ikinasawi ng mahigit sa dalawang daang katao.

Nilalaman
[itago]

• 1 Kasaysayan ng Payatas
• 2 Negosyo sa Basura
• 3 Ang Trahedya
• 4 Kawalan ng Sistema
• 5 Sanggunian
• 6 Pagkilala

Kasaysayan ng Payatas
Ang Barangay Payatas ay dating bahagi ng isang malaking lupaing tinatawag na Payatas
Estate na ngayon ay sinasakop ng malalaking subdibisyon. Ito ay malapit sa La Mesa Dam,
Ilog Montalban-Marikina at munisipyo ng San Mateo at Montalban (tinatawag ngayong
Rodriguez) sa lalawigan ng Rizal. Noon ito ay itinuturing na kagubatang pampubliko ng
Bureau of Forestry.
Nang maitatag ang Lungsod ng Quezon, 53 bahagi ng lupain na sakop ng Payatas estate ay
naging parte ng lungsod. Sinasakop nito ang anim na barangay, isa sa mga ito ang
kasalukuyang Barangay Payatas, Commonwealth, Batasan Hills, Holy Spirit, Fairview at
Silangan. Noong 1995, may populasyon itong 311,502. Ngayon, ang populasyon nito ay
naglalaro sa 450,000 hanggang 600,000.

Noong 1973, ilang bahagi ng Barangay Payatas ay ginawang tapunan ng basura. Dahil wala
pang inuuulat na problema sa basura, hindi ito lumaki hanggang noong dekada 90. Ayon sa
mga residente, noong mga 1988 hanggang 1989, abot pa ng kanilang tanaw ang Batasan.

Negosyo sa Basura
Malaki ang salaping umiikot sa tapunan ng basura at ito ay napupunta sa mga may-ari ng
lupang, kolektor ng basura at pamahalaan. Ayon sa Center for Research and Communication
(tinatawag ngayong University of Asia and the Pacific, ang pangungulekta ng basura ay isang
industriyang nagkakahalaga ng P2.1 bilyong piso taun-taon. Sa pag-aaral ng Philippine Daily
Inquirer, kumikita ang operator ng tapunan ng basura ng mahigit sa P50,000 kada araw.

Ang Trahedya
Naitala ang unang insidente ng pagguho sa Payatas noong 1999. Bagaman walang naiulat na
namatay, 32 pamilya ang nawalan ng tirahan. Agad na nagsagawa ng mga kilos-protesta ang
mga apektadong residente sa tapat ng Quezon City hall upang manawagan na itigil ang
pagtatapon ng basura sa Payatas subalit walang malinaw na aksyon silang natanggap mula sa
opisina ng alkalde noon na si Mel Mathay.

Kasagsagan ng ulan noong umaga ng Hulyo 10, 2009 nang biglang gumuho ang bundok ng
basura sa Payatas na ikinasira ng maraming kabahayan at ikinabaon ng mahigit 500 katao.
Tone-toneladang basura ang tinanggal upang masagip ang ilang residente ng lugar na
natabunan. Pagkatapos ng pagsasagip, naitala ang mahigit 300 katao ang namatay at
nawawala.

Kawalan ng Sistema
Isinisisi sa pamahalaan ng noo'y alkalde na si Mel Mathay ang nangyaring sakuna. Dahil sa
pangyayari, lalong nalitaw sa publiko ang kawalan ng kakayahan ng pamahalaang lutasin ang
problema sa basura.

Bagaman maayos na ang pinangyarihan ng trahedya, hindi pa rin nabibigyang linaw kung
sino ang dapat sisihin sa nangyaring sakuna.

Sanggunian
• The Payatas Tragedy
• The Story of Tragedy
• Payatas Tragedy
 • From Tragedy to Triumph

Pagkilala
http://fil.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Trahedya_sa_Payatas
all of the above were accessed on april 26 2010

Memories, lessons of Payatas tragedy

Inquirer
First Posted 01:26:00 07/12/2007

Filed Under: Disasters (general), Waste Management & Pollution Control, Environmental Issues

Last July 10, the seventh anniversary of the Payatas “garbage-slide” tragedy, we joined the survivors in remembering those who
perished in that heartrending disaster that saw hundreds of women, men and children buried alive under a mountain of trash.

With the prayers we offered for the victims, we now issue another call for a stop to the detrimental practice of waste-dumping that
persists to this day in Payatas and other communities.

We are pained to see that, notwithstanding the prohibition against open dumping and the legally imposed deadlines for the closure of
open dumps (February 2004) and controlled dumps (February 2006), powerless communities continue to be used as dumping grounds
for mixed discards and have to suffer the brunt of our wasteful habits.

The stream of proposals for so-called sanitary landfills startles us. It is as if landfills were safe, sustainable and socially acceptable; as if
it were all right to throw away money that local authorities should be using to educate the youth, to shelter the homeless, to create jobs
and to deliver health and other basic services to the poor.

We insist on, and vow to work for, the closure (long-delayed) of all dumps. We likewise call for multi-sector cooperation to solve our
worsening waste problems. We demand solutions that prevent and reduce irresponsible disposal of wastes and toxic materials; and that
provide humane, safe and secure alternative means of livelihood for waste-pickers.

We urge government entities and concerned financing agencies to re-channel the money slated for constructing landfills and
“incinerators” to waste-prevention and -reduction/community-oriented zero waste systems and programs that seek to eliminate rather
than to bury or burn wastes. Let us draw inspiration, knowledge and energy from a growing number of communities and entities that are
ecologically and creatively dealing with their discards.

The Payatas tragedy should remind our policymakers that dumping is not a safe and practical garbage disposal system; and that no
community deserves to be poisoned or to be deprived of their birth right to a healthy environment.

We all owe it to the victims of Payatas to do everything in our power to prevent such a dreadful calamity from happening again in
Payatas and elsewhere. We urge every home, school, church and community not to forget the lessons of Payatas and to commit to an
ecological and sustainable lifestyle.

We invite the citizenry and the government to observe every 10th of July as zero-waste awareness and action day for environmental
health and justice and a toxic-free future.

MOST REV. BISHOP ANTONIO R. TOBIAS (Diocese of Novaliches), MOST REV. DINUALDO D. GUTIERREZ (Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace), CHARITO JOCSON PINALAS (Peace and
Integrity of Creation Commission-Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines), ROMY HIDALGO (EcoWaste Coalition)

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view/20070712-
76150/Memories%2C_lessons_of_Payatas_tragedy