My stepfather’s family used to own a large piece of land in Bulacan. Back in the 80’s, the place was like paradise with lots of fruit-bearing trees, birds that you don’t see in the city, a small fishpond, and of course fresh air! I remember the time when we would just pick tomatoes and harvest some eggs from the few hens we have and cook dinner - no money involved.
But that changed. A few years later, a guy known as “Mang Ato” bought the adjacent properties and converted them into one big dumpsite. This dumpsite was placed in the middle of a residential area and no one in the government is taking action against it. Looks like Mang Ato has some power to boast of.
A group of people including my mom attempted to gather enough force to close the dumpsite but they failed. Now, the former paradise is a place for garbage flies, rats, worms, and foul toxic smell.
Now that I’m old enough, I think I should start doing something to stop this abuse of mother nature. I was told that filing a class action lawsuit against him is what I need to do but I need to ask a few lawyers about that first. Nonetheless, I scoured the net for information and I came across this class action lawsuit info by George Jr.. The site is pretty general but I think reading through the cases listed there would be a good start - for now.
Hopefully, Mang Ato’s garbage dumping days will soon be over.
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