30/07/2026
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ | ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ข๐ฅ
By the Socio-Cultural Creative Writing & Editorial Committe
The proposed โฑ78-million rehabilitation of the closed dumpsite in Sitio Tibag, Subic, Zambales is a welcome step toward restoring damaged land. Yet for Aeta residents who have endured years of foul odors, a contaminated environment, abandoned homes, and broken promises, environmental recovery alone cannot undo years of neglect or replace the accountability they are still owed. Accountability does not end with rehabilitationโit begins with it.
Despite clear prohibitions under Republic Act No. 9003 and warnings from the DENR as early as 2022, a 10,500-square-meter portion of the Aeta ancestral domain operated as an illegal open dumpsite for six years without basic safeguards like liners or waste segregation. This was not a failure of lawโit was a systemic failure of governance. A law ignored offers no protection, and every year the site remained open was another year the Aeta community carried the consequences of decisions they never made. Ang tanong, bakit nagpatuloy pa rin?
This injustice strikes at the heart of Indigenous rights. Protected under the Indigenous Peoplesโ Rights Act (IPRA) and recognized through a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), the Aeta Ambala Indigenous Cultural Community saw its ancestral land turned into a dumping ground for urban waste. Ang lupang ninuno ay hindi dapat gawing tapunan ng kapabayaan. The law recognized the land. The system failed to protect it. Residents were promised the dumpsite would only be temporary, with waste segregation, plastic liners, and daily soil covering. According to the documentary, those safeguards were never put in place. Hindi naman basta na lang sumulpot ang tambak na basura. May mga desisyong nagbigay-daan dito, mga babalang hindi pinansin, at mga pagkakataong kumilos na pinalampas. Yet it is the Aeta communityโnot those who made those decisionsโthat continues to bear the consequences.
Those consequences are measured not only by the waste left behind, but by the lives forced to endure it. For generations, the mountains sustained the Aeta people by providing food, water, and livelihood. Today, Tatay Mariano no longer tills the fertile soil that once sustained his family. Instead, the toxic stench from the dumpsite triggers chronic asthma in his children. Aeta residents are expected to clean even the smallest mess in the marketplace, yet their own ancestral land was left to bear thousands of tons of waste for years. That contradiction says more about accountability than any official statement could.
The crisis did not end when the dumping stopped. Toxic waste seeped into the soil, contaminating water sources the Aeta community once relied on for drinking, washing, and cooking. Covering the landfill with soil may hide it from public view, but it cannot restore polluted water or erase years of neglect. True rehabilitation requires restoring contaminated land and water, protecting the communityโs rights, and holding accountable those whose negligence allowed the damage to happen.
Those responsible cannot simply rehabilitate the land and walk away from the years of negligence that robbed a community of its homes, health, and peace. Anchored in our core values of Service, Truth, and Communion, we believe genuine rehabilitation is measured not by how well the garbage is hidden, but by the courage to acknowledge wrongdoing, repair the damage, and protect the rights of those who have long been ignored.
Justice cannot be measured by how well the waste is hidden beneath the soil, but by whether those responsible answer for the decisions that placed it there. The Aeta community deserves more than rehabilitation. It deserves accountability, restoration, and the assurance that no ancestral land will again become a dumping ground for neglect.
Editorial Cartooning by Blessie Lakag
