Dumpsite redevelopment

It seemed as if Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is looking beyond the Inayawan landfill for a solution to the city’s garbage problem if one were to base that on his pronouncement last week.

The mayor told reporters that he would allow the dumpsite to operate for two to three years before enclosing it in a large wall and burying the garbage with limestone to pave the way for a golf course.

And to make things a bit clearer, the mayor said he will entertain bidders to develop the Inayawan dumpsite into a golf course while firming up plans to transport the city’s garbage someplace else in the province.

This is perhaps confirmation if it hasn’t already that the city government plans to dump its garbage into a planned facility being developed by the provincial government in Carmen town.

The province had already started laying the groundwork for this initiative with Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III admitting that he had encountered some resistance from residents fearful of what the presence of mounds of garbage will do to their area.

We cannot help but recall what former mayor Michael Rama said when he announced that he would develop the Inayawan dumpsite into a park that’s open to the public.

He also said that Cebu City need not develop its own landfill site and that it can dump the city’s garbage someplace else, to a town or local government that has more than enough room and is willing to accept the city’s garbage for a fee.

Hence the private landfill site in Consolacion which Osmeña claimed had been anomalous and benefited some people in the previous administration. With his proposal, it seems as if Mayor Osmeña eventually agreed that the city would have to dump its garbage someplace else sometime in the future.

In fact, Rama’s proposal for a public park to replace the Inayawan dumpsite sounds a lot better than the golf course being proposed by Osmeña which would only benefit the rich folks living at the South Road Properties (SRP).

And the mayor said he would make sure that the city gets a better deal if it outsources its garbage disposal to the province since Carmen town is located farther away than Consolacion town. We hope that nothing irregular comes out of this.

Then again, what would happen if there is a change of administration on either side and the top local officials would find themselves at loggerheads with each other like what happened between Osmeña and former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia?

In the meantime, city residents living and working near the Inayawan dumpsite would have to bear the overpowering stench emanating from it for the next two to three years.