CEBU, Philippines – This year is about to end but the long standing issue about the controversial landfill and garbage disposal in Cebu City remains unsolved. How will the city government finally resolve this problem? For now, the answer remains uncertain as the city continues to work on finding a solution.
On December 21, Mayor Tomas Osmeña called for a special session of the City Council scheduled for December 23 to address the garbage disposal problem of the city.
The purpose of the special session was to discuss the emergency procurement of service providers that would haul and transfer the city’s garbage that have been temporarily disposed in the transfer station at the South Road Properties to an authorized landfill.
Executive Assistant to the Mayor, Francisco ‘Bimbo’ Fernandez, said this is the move of the executive department to address the issue of garbage disposal considering that the Environmental Management Bureau-7 issued a cease and desist order on the establishment of the SRP transfer station due to its environmental violations.
Councilor Joel Garganera, chairman of the council committee on environment, who had earlier authored a motion opposing the establishment of the transfer station because it failed to secure Environmental Compliance Certificate, said that he is willing to sit down with the executive body to finally resolve the issue.
“That’s long overdue. Sa una pa unta. But kami sa konseho, we’re waiting for that. Sama sa among gisulti four months ago. Nihatag mi og resolution authorizing him to enter into and negotiate a contract to any landfill. That goes without saying nga unsa’y legislative support nga among mahatag to address that issue, andam ug abli mi,” he said.
Because of the executive department’s move, Garganera was happy that it is willing to sit down with the council which was dominated by Team Rama-affiliated officials to solve the matter without political posturing.
“I’m very happy with this development, mura’g gidungog ang atong pag-ampo nga somehow let us not look into each other, criticize each other but let’s look forward together in one direction. And that is to keep Cebu City clean,” he added.
Background
The issue of the landfill surfaced after residents near the area as well as students in the nearby University of Cebu-Mambaling Campus started complaining about the foul smell coming from the landfill which has been operating since September 11, 1998.
The immediate response of the city government was to spray enzymes into the mound of the garbage, covering the garbage with soil in order to level the waste, and making use of the donated bulldozers from the Cebu Contractors Association.
In line with this, the city government together with the Department of Public Services also came up with a new garbage collection scheme that will start from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. so that they can repair the service road in the landfill.
The city, together with former councilor Nida Cabrera, who was then tasked to oversee the reopening of the landfill, also established composting facilities in some barangays in order to lessen the biodegradable waste to be disposed in the landfill.
These barangays were Sto. Niño, Mabolo, Talamban, Capitol Site, Kalunasan, Labangon, Cogon-Pardo, Tisa, Luz, Kamagayan, Pasil, and Buhisan.
Their next targets were the barangays Suba and Inayawan to establish the Takakura kind of composting facility that will accommodate 10 tons of biodegradable waste.
Despite these efforts, the landfill was officially shut down by the city government on January 15, 2015, citing that it has reached maximum capacity. The city started dumping garbage in a privately-owned landfill in Consolacion.
After findings by the Commission on Audit that the previous administration did not enter into a contract with the privately-owned landfill in Consolacion, Osmeña ceased transporting garbage to Consolacion and reopened the Inayawan landfill.
As Executive Assistant to the Mayor, Fernandez explained that this was because the principle of the mayor was not to tolerate unlawful actions which led to the Inayawan landfill reopening.
The Inayawan landfill reopened on June 28 with the go signal from the EMB-7.
On September 23, Garganera filed a petition for the “Writ of Kalikasan” before the Court of Appeals.
He also asked the CA for the issuance of a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) for the landfill considering that it was reopened despite the 13 environmental violations and non-compliance of sanitary requirements of the Department of Health.
The filing of the petition came after the DOH-regional office recommended for an immediate closure of the landfill adding that the residents there are at high risk of acquiring different types of illnesses.
On October 12, the CA decided to defer the resolution for the issuance of the TEPO in order for the two camps of Osmeña and Garganera to come up with a win-win solution for the landfill.
On October 20, DENR Secretary Gina Lopez called for the immediate closure of the landfill after learning that is was close to the sea.
“I did not know at first that the site was actually near the sea. If I would have known earlier, I would really have it closed. A landfill near the sea should not be allowed,” Lopez stressed.
On October 24, the CA decided to let both camps submit their respective position papers regarding the petition after hearing the two conflicting stands on the closure of the landfill.
The legal counsel of the DENR national office was also there in the hearing and suggested that both camps have a conference meeting to solve the issue.
However, no agreement was reached. With this, last December 15, CA granted the issuance of the TEPO.
Fernandez said the executive department was surprised when the Court of Appeals issued a closure order of the landfill because they had thought that the justice system will understand why they decided to have it reopened.
Meanwhile, the executive department had proposed a P600 million budget for the rehabilitation of the Inayawan landfill but the council approved only P85 million.
Cabrera said P85 million was not enough to rehabilitate the facility for they will need to put up a high retaining wall among others.
Garganera said the DPS, City Planning Office and City’s Environment and Natural Resources Office failed to defend the proposed P600 million cost. Garganera said the approved P85 million was based on the calculation of EMB-7 for the rehabilitation of the landfill.
The council then did not set aside a budget to look for an alternative landfill since the executive department did not yet identify a possible dumpsite. However, Fernandez said that if the council had approved the P600 million, they believe that the landfill will be properly managed and there would be no need to find another dumpsite.
Temporary dumpsite at SRP
Because of CA’s decision, the city decided to put up a transfer station in SRP beginning December 16.
For violations on environmental laws and for not securing an Environmental Compliance Certificate, EMB-7 issued a cease and desist order.
Despite this, the city continued to use the transfer station at the SRP. Osmeña said he cannot compromise the health of the residents by not collecting garbage, adding that he did not want to dispose again in Consolacion because of the previous administration’s alleged “anomalous” transaction.
“At the moment, we have no choice but to leave what we collect in the existing transfer station at the edge of the SRP. This will not be permanent. We will only use it until we have a suitable permanent location and then everything will be transferred there. Now, the EMB has issued a certificate of non-compliance the new transfer stations, and of course the city will exert all effort to comply. However, let me clearly state my policy direction: Under No Circumstance Will Your City Government Be Intimidated Into Pursuing An Unlawful Situation, Specifically An Act Of Graft. There is clearly politics behind this. Someone is trying to make money,” reads Osmeña’s statement posted on his Facebook page.
Cabrera said she asked the EMB-7 to reconsider its decision and give them time to use the transfer station in SRP, considering that they are about to procure service providers for hauling.
Emergency Procurement
During the December 23 special session called for by Osmeña, the council granted authority to Osmeña to enter into contracts for emergency procurement of service providers to haul the garbage in SRP to an authorized landfill.
Jomara Konstruckt Corp. was granted the contract and began transporting the garbage on December 29. The tipping fee is P1,375 per ton of garbage and the only role of the city is to pay the tipping fee and the service providers will do the rest of the job like hauling, providing equipment, among others.
Fernandez said, based on what has been agreed in the meeting with City Treasurer’s Office and City Accounting Office, they will use the remaining balance in the city’s coffers amounting to P9.2 million for the payment of service providers.
The P9.2 million, however, is only good until December 31. With this, there is a possibility that the approved budget of DPS will be used for tipping fees amounting to P121 million for 2017. — /JBB (FREEMAN)