THE city of Pasay has accused the neighbouring city of Makati of dirty tactics in a competition to pick the cleanest and greenest city in Metro Manila.
Makati, the country's premier business district, was recently selected as Metro Manila's cleanest city, while Pasay, an area of old colonial dwellings and crowded tenements on the shores of Manila Bay, was named as one of the dirtiest places in the Philippines.
Now the wife of the Mayor of Pasay, Elaine Gamboa-Cuneta, said Makati bin men had been dumping rubbish in her city, giving the double effect of making Makati more beautiful, while at the same time spoiling Pasay's appearance.
Mrs Gamboa-Cuneta said she had seen a Makati rubbish truck drop its load along Andrew Street inside Villamor Air Base, which comes under Pasay City's jurisdiction.
'I am deeply hurt by the Department of Interior and Local Government's decision because I have been personally attending to the beautification of Roxas Boulevard [which runs along the Manila foreshore] for the past two months,' she said.
'Maybe we're not the cleanest, but we're certainly not the dirtiest.' City budget officer Julita Cayanan said some of the rubbish may be ending up on Pasay's streets because waste disposal operators now had to travel to landfill stations outside Manila instead of the now closed Smokey Mountain dump.
