Baguio Dads allot P103M “solve” garbage crisis

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BAGUIO CITY ― During its session Monday, the Baguio City council made a landmark decision through nominal voting appropriating P103 million for the immediate resolution of the city’s garbage crisis.

After several hours of deliberation and debate, the council appropriated P60.5 million for the hauling of garbage, P30 million for the initial amount to purchase land for the engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) and P12.6 million for the purchase of dump trucks, through three different council resolutions.

Among the council members, only Councilor Richard Cariño opposed the appropriation for the hauling and the purchase of dump trucks. Councilors Betty Lourdes Tabanda, Erdolfo Balajadia and Nicasio Aliping Jr. who were in an official business in Vallejo, California were absent during Monday’s session.

“In conscience I am voting against it because it is money going to waste. I cannot accept wasting the taxpayers’ money,” said Cariño.

“We do not want to spend so much taxpayers’ money for the hauling because we already have plans for an ESL, and it is only wise to buy dump trucks if the private hauling would already be stopped,” he further added.

The P60.5 million-allocation and the P10 million allocated before would be used to pay local private haulers in transporting the city’s garbage to out-of-town landfills from August until December of this year.

The city has not paid for the hauling of residual waste to Capas, Tarlac by local private haulers for the whole month of August.

Cariño instead proposed for the implementation of the past city ordinances appropriating P15 and P7.4 million for the development of temporary residual containment areas (RCAs) in ACEX housing area in Irisan and other areas.

According to him it was a landmark decision in terms of the council’s record in misspending the city’s meager resources.

“Our employees, teachers, policemen and other civil servants in our city are clamouring for additional allowances to augment their salary and be able to weather the onslaught of rising basic commodity. We could have put that money to better use,” according to a press statement by Cariño.

“The city deserves better in addressing the garbage problem rather than literally throwing all that money to waste,” the statement said.

Republic Act 9003 enacted January of 2001, mandates all local government units (LGUs) to look for an alternative to the most frequently used open dumpsite within five years, from the law’s promulgation.

According to Cariño, “some responsible persons slept on their job” in meeting the requirement of the said law.

Meanwhile, Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said during the weekly media forum Thursday, he is willing to really solve the city’s garbage problem head on and would not pass it on to the next administration.

The City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) is looking at the RCAs and open composting areas as mitigating measures while the search for a more permanent ESL is still on going.

CEPMO recommended to the council a site in Virac, Itogon for the RCA and a site in Rosario, La union for the open composting area.

There are three requirements in order for the city to set up an ESL in a certain community, namely, social acceptability, municipal resolution for the purchase of land, and barangay clearance from the host community.

So far, two prospective sites namely Quimbongan, Nangalisan, Tuba and Tinongdan, Itogon, already signified their interest in hosting the city’s ESL, through respective approved Sangguniang Barangay resolutions, according to Bautista.

The city council created teams to do ocular inspections on the said sites and other proposed sites.

The city government targets to have its own ESL by January next year. # Cye Reyes