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AN ENVIRONMENT group in San Mateo town has challenged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to revoke all environment compliance certificates of businesses it claimed are destroying the forested parts of the town.
In a convention of about 500 residents on Sunday in Barangay Banaba, the People’s Response for the Protection of the Environment of San Mateo (Protect San Mateo) vowed to “stop the continuing exploitation of natural resources in San Mateo.”
In a statement, the group bewailed what it called the “wanton quarrying, logging, garbage dumping in sanitary landfills, or ‘glorified dumps,’ illegal and ill-planned conversion of land into subdivisions and resorts, and other destructive activities in the town” and nearby municipalities.
“The slopes of Rizal should serve as protection against hostile weather and source of sustenance for the lower communities including Metro Manila and other adjacent areas, but human greed has destroyed our God-given home,” the group said.
Jordan Jurado, secretary-general, said a large part of San Mateo, Rodriguez (Montalban) and Antipolo is a protected area, noting that it was declared a National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuary in 1979.
The group also accused “the powers-that-be” in San Mateo and other Rizal towns of engaging in what it described as a lucrative business in sanitary landfills, including the contested dump at the boundary of Barangays Maly and Guinayang in San Mateo.
