Four presidential aspirants have united in urging the Arroyo administration to assist local government units (LGUs) in fine-tuning their garbage disposal systems instead of threatening local officials who failed to implement environmental laws, especially the Solid Waste Management Act.

The aspirants said instead of threatening to jail uncooperative local officials, an investigation should be conducted to establish the link between solid waste management mechanisms in the local level and the massive flooding that submerged many parts of Metro Manila and outlying provinces from tropical storm “Ondoy”.

Senators Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Manuel “Manny” Villar, and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. were reacting to a statement made earlier by Environment Secretary Jose Atienza Jr. that mayors of cities and municipalities who fell short of implementing strict environmental laws will be sued and jailed.

Atienza blamed poor waste disposal systems in the local level for the unprecedented flooding that wreaked havoc in national infrastructures, agricultural crops and personal properties last week.

Many areas around Laguna de Bay remain flooded up to the present, with officials unable to come up with any feasible solution while millions of residents face possible disease outbreaks and humanitarian crisis.

“It is not time to play the blaming game. What government should do is to assist the LGUs in managing their waste disposal systems instead of apprehending them without introducing solutions to the problem.

“Jailing them would only show that the administration is passing the blame to others,” Escudero said in an interview after a forum with 100 local government executives at the Asia Institute of Management in Makati City Tuesday.

Villar echoed Escudero’s sentiments, adding that persistent failure to solve garbage problems should be the ultimate gauge in suing local executives.

“It is useless to insist LGUs to implement something if they don’t have the capacity and resources to do so. The government can give incentives to those who comply but should give more attention and support to those who cannot,” Villar said in the vernacular.

For their part, maternal cousins Aquino and Teodoro proposed a full-blown investigation, saying the root cause of perennial flooding can be traced to the incessant obstructions along waterways and poor garbage collection and disposal.

“We are drafting a resolution proposing for a Senate inquiry on the matter. This is because an investigation is our only way to determine the problem and formulate the proper solution to it. It will be a vicious cycle to solve the problem with inappropriate kinds of solution,” Aquino added.

Aquino, Escudero, Villar and Teodoro also aired similar viewpoints on other issues raised by the local executives during what they described as a “mock job interview” for the country’s next President.

The four are virtually one in saying that the present Constitution needs to be revised to be responsive to the needs of time.

But while Teodoro prefers it done through a constituent convention, Escudero wants it pursued through a plebiscite. Aquino and Villar only required that any move to change the Constitution be made after the 2010 elections.

Regarding the peace talks in Mindanao, the presidential aspirants said that if elected in office, they will continue negotiations and gather more stakeholders to the discussion table.