Parañaque eyes another ‘emergency’ garbage hauler

MANILA, Philippines - The Parañaque City government is planning to hire another “emergency” garbage hauler as it tries to speed up the bidding process for a new garbage hauling contractor, a top city official said yesterday.

City administrator Ding Soriano told The STAR the city government will come out with a notice of public bidding for garbage collection services in the next two weeks.

“Garbage collection is our top priority, the city government will not allow another garbage pileup in the city,” he said.

However, Soriano admitted that the bidding process may take time so they have to enter an emergency contract to ensure the daily collection of garbage.

The city government’s hiring of Manila-based Leonel Waste Management has raised concerns that the contract was a “done deal,” but Soriano said Leonel’s services will be terminated and another contract will be hired on an emergency basis.

“The city government will not allow a monopoly in the emergency hiring of contractors,” he said, adding that Leonel’s services were necessary to prevent the further buildup of garbage in the city.

Soriano said an emergency contract can only be allowed in cases of natural and man-made calamities. During the first week of the month, it was reported that around 5,000 tons of garbage were left on Parañaque’s roads after the city’s garbage contractor allegedly discontinued its services two weeks before its contract expired on June 30.

Former mayor Florencio Bernabe, who stepped down on June 30, earlier said the garbage pileup was an offshoot of the expiration of Corinthian Trucking’s contract and the garbage hauler did not stop serving the city until June 30.

Bernabe said the garbage problem was fully discussed by his transition team with his successor, Mayor Edwin Olivarez, and among the recommendations his team made was to extend Corinthian’s contract for at least 30 days to ensure the smooth collection of garbage.