A Regional Trial Court in Capas, Tarlac has issued a Writ of Preliminary Injunction five days after the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) had attempted to take over the 100-hectare facility of the Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation in Capas, Tarlac, with a cease and desist order.
The CDC Security has tried to serve the cease and desist order on October 25, 2024, a day after the 20-day Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the CDC and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) lapsed.
The Writ of Preliminary Injunction effectively stop CDC and BCDA from taking over the waste facility and to hamper its operations.
The MCWM is expected to resume its operations on October 30, as a queue of trucks carrying wastes line up in front of the facility since October 25.
The MCWM had temporarily stopped operations on October 25, hampering the waste disposal operations of more than 150 local government units all over Central Luzon and Northern Luzon and some hospitals in Metro Manila.
The LGUs as far as Bulacan and private haulers had waited for the MCWM to open its doors since October 25 citing the high cost of taking their waste in the proposed alternatives sites of CDC and BCDA.
In a 5-page order dated October 29, 2024, penned by Presiding Judge Ronald Leo T. Haban, of Branch 66 of the Capas Regional Trial Court, it noted: “It was established through the manifestations and testimonies of the parties that they are in ‘agreement’ (expressly and/or impliedly) that there can be no force, violence, threat, coercion, or intimidation but only legal means in imposing one’s will toward the other. Yet, after the expiration of the Temporary Restraining Order herein, Plaintiffs submitted evidence attached to their Manifestation & Submission With Urgent Motion To Resolve, tending to show the aforementioned circumstance/s. The same cannot be condoned by the court. Ours is still a court of law and not of men. In simple terms, the rule of law holds that laws (and not men) rule. This entails that no one is above the law and that the laws are intended to serve the public good rather than private interests.”
In issuing the Writ of Preliminary Injunction, the order further stated: “Defendants Agnes VST Devanadera, Jshua “Jake” Bingcang, or any and all officers of defendant CDC and BCDA or any person acting under their orders or authority and Heads of CDC’s and BCDA’s security forces and their security personnel are enjoined from using force, violence, coercion, threat and/or intimidation in demanding to vacate/actually evicting.”
In a statement, the MCWM said: “We welcome this court action concerning our judicial recourse. For the past 25 years, our company have been painstakingly strived to deliver in earnest all our contractual obligations to the government and maintained extra ordinary services, not to mention additional capital investments in order for us to provide efficiency to hundreds of local government units including industrial and commercial clientele both in Central and Northern Luzon regions”.
MCWM said they did not violate any environmental laws governing waste disposal nor have been re missed in their financial and service obligations to Clark Development Corporation for the past two decades.
“In spite of all these, we are being forced to cease our operational service and even vacate our leased facilities. We were left with no other options but to seek judicial intervention concerning our plight,” they added.
“We would like to re assure our valued clients including our stakeholders that we will continue to seek all available legal avenues as our faith in our country’s judicial system remains constant and We will immediately resume operations or as soon as we have put in place our operational systems for us to be able to once again efficiently serve our loyal customers and clienteles.” MCWM stated.
The MCWM waste facility in Capas, Tarlac operates the Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill, is only engineered sanitary landfill that has a daily capacity of 4,000 tons to 5,000 tons. It is serving some 150 local government units in Central and Northern Luzon, including hospitals in Metro Manila.
