Google map of Manolo Fortich in Bukidnon.
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Village officials in a Bukidnon town have brought their complaint against a processing company that emits foul odor for the third time in six years to the city government here.
Armed with a petition signed by hundreds of residents, the barangay council of Mambatangan, Manolo Fortich town, sought the intervention of the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (CLENRO) to close the Misamis Oriental Rendering Corp. (MORC), a facility that processes discarded chicken parts into agricultural feeds.
MORC is located in Purok 7, Barangay Puerto here, just several meters away from Mambatangan.
The village officials of the said town said the residents could not stand the stench coming from the plant and demanded the CLENRO to order the closure of the manufacturing facility.
“We want CLENRO to act on it as it is within their jurisdiction. They must close MORC for our sake. We cannot take it anymore,” Junrey Lagat, Mambatangan village councilor and chair of the environment committee, said Tuesday.
According to Angelie Roa, Mambatangan barangay chairperson, this is not the first time that they called the attention of CLENRO regarding the foul odor that emanates from the MORC plant.
In fact, she said, the office had issued two cease and desist orders against the company, first in 2015 and then in 2018.
In the order, Edwin Dael, former CLENRO chief, said they were able to confirm the “unabated foul and offensive odor” coming from the MORC plant, prompting the agency to direct the company to shut down its processing facility.
The stench, he said, “really provides unbearable discomfort among the complainants thereat as manifested in their letter of complaints,” referring to the residents’ petition.
Lagat said MORC, however, resumed its operations six months after the first cease and desist order came out and noted that the company also changed management when it resumed to process feeds.
The second cease and desist order was issued by Armen Cuenca, the CLENRO chief at present, who cited the same reason for the plant’s closure, in 2018.
Three years after the second order, the residents of Mambatangan have once again lodged their complaint against the plant.
Lagat said the stench coming the facility has gotten worse and the emission of odor became more frequent in the past few months.
The local media tried to reach the management of MORC for comment, but to no avail. (PNA)
