Tom invites justices to visit landfill

One of the interventions of the city government to mitigate the smell of the garbage in the Inayawan landfill is to spray enzymes at the mountains of garbage dumped there.
(CDN FILE PHOTO)

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is inviting justices of the Court of Appeals (CA) to join him and visit the Inayawan landfill in an effort to convince them to allow the city to continue using the facility.

Osmeña also said that he would attend the next hearing on Oct. 24 for the request of Councilor Joel Garganera for a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) against the continued operation of the landfill so that he could answer questions from the justices.

“I’m trying to be as open and as transparent as possible. I’ll make myself available. I will invite the justices to do a site inspection in the landfill. I’m not interested in winning or losing. I don’t care if I’m the loser. I just want the city to win. That’s all,” he told reporters yesterday.

The mayor made the statement after the CA, in a hearing last Wednesday, recommended to both parties — the Cebu City government and Garganera — to try to come up with a win-win compromise on the issue.

The CA also recommended that the city government try and renegotiate with the private landfill in Consolacion town in northern Cebu so that the city could return to dumping its garbage there while looking for an alternative dumping site.

Mayor’s reasons

But Osmeña cited several reasons why the city could not go back to dumping the city’s garbage at the Consolacion dumpsite.

He said these included the lack of budget appropriation for the tipping fees, lack of a valid contract with the operator, and the lack of garbage trucks that could make the trip to the north.

The mayor instead said that the city should continue using the Inayawan landfill where the city had already done interventions to mitigate the foul odor from the landfill like spraying enzymes to remove the smell.

“Because it’s not an issue. They have to see for themselves. There are many instances where the judges will go to the site to see what we’re talking about,” Osmeña said on why he wants the justices to visit the landfill.

He also said that he did not attend last Wednesday’s hearing because he believed that he was not needed and he was represented by his lawyers.

But he would attend the next hearing.

“There should only be one winner, and that’s the City of Cebu. Not me, not Garganera, not anybody else, not the landfill operator. My focus is there should only be one winner and that’s the people and the City of Cebu,” he said.