Cebu City Hall to tap emergency funds for landfill

INAYAWAN LANDFILL (CDN FILE PHOTO)

CITY Hall’s executive department will tap into Cebu City’s emergency funds in order to cure defects at the Inayawan dumpsite and comply with environmental standards set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).

City Administrator Jovy Morellos said the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) conducted an emergency meeting for the planned emergency procurement of limestone or anapog which will be used to cover the mounds of garbage dumped in the landfill to minimize, if not eliminate, the foul odor.

City Hall’s executive department also planned to spray enzymes to minimize the terrible stench that wafts through the landfill’s neighboring areas which has been the subject of several complaints from residents, students and business establishments, mostly locators in the South Road Properties (SRP).

“In preparation for the need to procure certain materials, we will resort to emergency procurement. We are just waiting for the purchase request from the DPS (Department of Public Services ),” said Morellos who is also the vice chairman of the BAC for goods.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier announced in a meeting last Sunday that landfill operations in Barangay Inayawan will continue as the city is trying to find ways to solve the stench and comply with EMB standards.

Morellos said that the specifics on how much limestone or enzymes will be procured will depend on the request from the DPS.

They are looking at the city’s Accelerated Social Amelioration Program (ASAP) fund as the possible source of budget for the emergency procurement, said Morellos.

Emergency procurement, which would not need the approval of the city council, can be done if there is “imminent danger”, she said.

Asked for comment, Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella said that he will leave it up to the executive department to look for ways to address concerns regarding the landfill, especially after the mayor’s firm stand on the continued use of the facility.

“It’s important for the executive department to find a way to comply with the law. As long as we don’t violate the law and for as long as the provisions of the law are being followed,” Labella said, referring to Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.

Councilor Joel Garganera, head of the city’s committee on environment, is set to deliver a privilege speech today calling for the landfill’s closure and giving the executive department 15 days to look for alternatives or face a petition for a Writ of Kalikasan in court to compel the city to close the landfill.

Spraying starts

Meanwhile, former Cebu City councilor Nida Cabrera, who is now the environment consultant for City Hall, announced that they had already started spraying enzymes in the landfill since Sunday which will be done daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., she said.

This was part of Cabrera’s commitment to EMB-7 following a notice issued by the bureau against the city last week for 13 violations on the terms and conditions of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued by DENR for the operation of the landfill in Inayawan.

“We have private sectors and partners from Japan who are giving us these enzymes (deodorizers). This will be free until a budget is approved by the council,” Cabrera told the reporters.

At least five truckloads of deodorizers will be applied on the landfill daily.
Cabrera said filling materials from construction sites in Cebu City have also started to arrive to be used to cover the mounds of garbage.

Cabrera said that these were given by the construction companies voluntarily in place of the limestone that City Hall still needed to purchase in order to eliminate the stench.

Last week, Cabrera and three other city hall representatives met with EMB-7 Director William Cuñado and signed a commitment to address problems in the landfill.

Cabrera said that they are now in the process of fulfilling the other commitments that she signed for last week before the EMB-7 which threatened to issue a closure order on the landfill if the city’s 13 violations on environmental standards are not addressed.
Melissa Cabahug, information officer for EMB-7, said that the bureau has designated one “patroller” to monitor the landfill area.

“We are still waiting for his official report if the Cebu City government complied with its promise,” Cabahug told Cebu Daily News.