P5M benefits for landfill host barangay

CEBU - Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña reiterated his offer of P5 million or more benefits to barangays which can provide the city with a landfill site.

“I have been scouting for landfill area for the last 15 years,” the mayor said in a news conference yesterday.

Osmeña explained he is scouting for a new dumpsite in all the 80 barangays of the city and has been offering P5 million or more in terms of projects but even up to this day, no one has accepted the offer.

The issue on the need for a new landfill site stemmed from the report that the existing Inayawan Sanitary Landfill is already full.

The area is supposed to be closed in 2005 but since there is no new dumpsite yet, the city has decided to utilize it in the next few years.

The city is collecting an average of 400 tons of garbage daily and the landfill is currently loaded with over one million tons of different kinds of trash.

Meanwhile, Osmeña said yesterday that he is willing to attend the barangay consultation in Kalunasan on October 5, in which the issue on the plan of the city to put up the new dumpsite in the barangay would be tackled.

 “I’m happy to attend even a 100 consultations. I will attend because I’m sure we can come up with something that is good for them,” Osmeña said.

Barangay officials and some residents have already expressed their opposition to the plan, saying their place would no longer smell good which may turn off potential investors.

Kalunasan is the site where the Cebu City Jail and the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center are located.

Osmeña, however, explained that no decision has been reached yet in making Kalunasan as a new site for a landfill but added the city will open a trail so vehicles can go there for the city to evaluate whether the site is viable for a dumpsite.

“No decision will be made until all issues are being threshed out. I understand how they felt,” the mayor said.

Osmeña said that areas in Talamban, Budlaan, Pulang-bato and Pit-os should have their own dumpsite so that their garbage will no longer be dumped at Inayawan landfill.

He said he already offered P5 million incentive to these barangays but to no avail. — Mitchelle P. Palaubsanon/WAB (THE FREEMAN)