The Coalition for a Garbage-Free San Mateo is calling for the closure of the San Mateo Sanitary Landfill.

?The operators of Montalban and San Mateo landfills are the same,? Tony Balute, coalition member, told reporters at yesterday?s press conference in Pasig City.

Anti-dump activists have opposed the dumps in the neighboring towns because they imperilled the watershed that was responsible for Metro Manila?s water supply.

?Eventually, leachate that would emanate from the said landfill will flow toward bodies of water like the Montalban-San Mateo River then to the Marikina River which is a tributary of the Pasig River,? said Clemente Bautista Jr., of Kalikasan People?s Network for the Environment.

On Feb. 12 and 18, the San Mateo Regional Trial Court Branch 75 denied the petition for temporary restraining order filed by Filinvest Land Inc. and the Ecological Waste Coalition of the Philippines, respectively, against San Mateo Sanitary Landfill Development Corp., after it found no compelling urgency and no threat to its surroundings.

The advocates said the new site in Pintong Bukawe, San Mateo, was inside the Marikina Watershed Reservation Park and an unnamed reservation park, Wildflife sanctuary and game preserve declared under Presidential Proclamation 1636 dated April 18, 1977.

But landfill developer Andy Santiago said all villages of San Mateo welcomed the dump?s opening.

Stephen Domingo, representing about 1,000 cyclists, called on members to pedal to San Mateo on Saturday for a symposium on the status of the dump protest.

?We want to let the public know that we are not just biking around for fun but also for the protection of our environment,? he said.

Santiago stood by the landfill as a project that passed the government?s stringent environmental requirements.

?The landfill is located at a distance seven kilometers from the watershed in contrast to what the environmental advocates are saying,? Santiago said. ?These environmental groups are harping on the wrong facts because we have a certification that we are outside the forest and the watershed.?

The advocates are unconvinced, claiming that the environmental compliance certificate on file with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources was for the dump which was ordered closed by the Supreme Court in 2005, and not in Barangays Maly and Guinayang, where the present site is situated. Gigi Mu?oz David