Garganera to attend today’s House hearing on Korean trash

CEBU City Councilor Joel Garganera will fly to Manila today to attend the House committee hearing investigating the dumping of 5,000 metric tons of trash from South Korea to Cebu.

According to Garganera, the former head of the Cebu City Council’s committee on environment, he will try to clear his name from the issue after being “dragged” into it by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

“My name was dragged into this when the mayor was insinuating that I will benefit out of this issue, that I might have something to do with this. Of course, I will just explain that I got involved in this because of the mayor,” he said.

Osmeña is the subject of a letter of a certain Felix Lopez Jr., a “concerned taxpayer,” sent to the Office of the President last March which alleged that there was an illicit transaction to dump the mixed trash from South Korea to the Inayawan landfill.

Aside from the mayor, former councilor Augustus Pe and former acting Customs Collector Rico Rey Francis Holganza were also identified by the letter sender as allegedly involved in the transaction.

In his earlier statements, the mayor said that Garganera “will benefit” from the issue saying it will make him look good being a vocal critic against the city’s use of the Inayawan landfill before.

The hearing will be spearheaded by the committee on ecology of the House of Representatives from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

The investigation was called for by Cebu 3rd District Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia.

Garganera said he received a letter of invitation from Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing, who is the chairperson of the committee, last November 10.

“Probably, on my end, I will just explain to the members of the committee how the Inayawan landfill was closed and how it was reopened. But regards to that letter (sent to the President), I have nothing to do with it,” he said.

To recall, about 5,000 metric tons of mixed garbage from Jeju Port in South Korea arrived in Pier 3 in Cebu City last January. Some of the garbage were delivered to a private warehouse in Barangay Guizo, Mandaue City.

Part of the shipment was then transferred to an open dumpsite in Barangay Tingub where residents complained about its foul odor, prompting the Mandaue City government to look into the issue.

The first hearing on the issue was done last August with officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

According to Garganera, other officials invited in today’s committee hearing are Mayor Osmeña and Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing.

“I hope the mayor (Osmeña) is present in the hearing so he can clarify why he ever dragged my name. It’s unfair on my end,” Garganera said.

During the last hearing, Osmeña was also invited, but he only sent his executive assistant, Francisco Fernandez.

In a position paper earlier submitted by the mayor, he also said that Cebu City was “wrongly dragged” into the controversy just because of the letter of Lopez.