It’s barely a week old and yet the garbage collection schedule in Cebu City isn’t sitting well with some barangay officials.
Barrio Luz barangay chairman Jerome Pagador said instead of helping improve traffic in their area, the new 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. schedule is ironically aggravating traffic congestion especially along Archbishop Reyes Avenue
He said their barangay would always experience heavy traffic at 5 p.m. since this is the usual time when work and classes end.
Archbishop Reyes Ave. also connects to the congested Banilad-Talamban road.
“We really tried to follow the new schedule but we can’t do it. The roads in our barangay are very small and we don’t have alternative routes,” Pagador said.
He said what they do is collect the garbage in the barangay at 6 a.m. and end at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m.
Then they wait until 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. when they transport the collected garbage to the Inayawan landfill which opens at 5 p.m. also.
The new collection scheme was implemented all over the city by the Department of Public Services (DPS) last Sunday, Oct. 16.
DPS assistant head John Paul Gelasque earlier mentioned Barangays Barrio Luz, Pasil and Suba as among those that didn’t follow the new schedule.
Pagador lamented how the DPS didn’t consult with barangay officials before deciding to implement the new collection scheme since they too have their concerns.
Pasil barangay chairman Julius Guioguio denied that they didn’t follow the new schedule.
“There are even some people who requested that we do the collection in the morning but we didn’t do so since we wanted to follow the new schedule,” he told reporters.
He admitted though that they start collecting the garbage earlier than the 5 p.m. schedule.
Sometimes, he said they start collecting as early as 2 p.m. so by 4 p.m. they can go to the Inayawan landfill to dump their garbage.
Guioguio said they don’t want to be stuck in the landfill at night since the landfill has no street lights.
Apas barangay chairman Ramil Ayuman also admitted that they also start collecting garbage in their barangay before 5 p.m.
“We can’t let our trucks reach nightfall at Inayawan because there are no street lights there. Our drivers and trucks might get into an accident if they dump at night there,” Ayuman said.
Tisa barangay chairman and Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president Philip Zafra said he has no problem with dumping garbage at night since that’s what they have been doing before.
Zafra said doing the collection at night can really help improve traffic in the city since the trucks won’t have to add to the road volume.
He said though that some subdivisions in his barangay complained about the collection at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. since they are already asleep by that time.
What he’s asking from DPS, Zafra said, is for them to already process the payroll for the honorarium of garbage loaders and garbage truck drivers from the barangays.
“We found out from the city accountant that the payroll gets stuck at the DPS level that’s why it hasn’t been released,” he said.
Garbage loaders and drivers get a P5,000 monthly honorarium from the city.
Zafra told Cebu Daily News that these personnel last received their honorarium for the month of June only.