City Hall starts sending trucks to pick up uncollected garbage in Kalunasan jails

The Cebu City jail and Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center are facing each other in Barangay Kalunasan. Acting CPDRC warden Dr. Gil Macato claimed that garbage piles inside the provincial jail remain uncollected for two months now (CDN FILE PHOTO).

Cebu City Hall will now be regularly sending trucks to Barangay Kalunasan to collect garbage from the two jail facilities located in the mountain barangay.

Department of Public Services (DPS) assistant head John Paul Gelasque said he sent personnel to the area yesterday afternoon to check on reports of weeks of uncollected garbage in the jails, which have resulted in foul stench within the vicinity.

“I sent personnel to check the volume of garbage being generated there so that we can identify if we should send trucks there twice or thrice a week,” he said.

The Cebu City jail and the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) are located right across each other.

Trucks have been sent yesterday to collect the garbage that have piled up there. Gelasque said he will also be sending trucks today to continue collecting garbage.

CPDRC acting jail warden Dr. Gil Macato said the garbage inside the facility has not been collected by the city for almost two months now.

“I don’t know why, but they (Barangay Kalunasan) stopped collecting it (garbage),” Macato said.

Macato said, though, that the garbage is not dangerous to the inmates’ health.

“I think in one month time this problem will be solved,” Macato said. When he was told by reporters about the problem yesterday, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña immediately called Gelasque to check on the matter while in the middle of his press conference since he said he hasn’t heard of any reports about it.

According to DPS head Roberto Cabarrubias, they were not informed about the growing problem of uncollected garbage at the city jail and the CPDRC.

He said that usually, the management of both facilities would just call them to request that trucks be sent to collect the garbage.

“We don’t usually send trucks regularly there because the DPS only collects along the main thoroughfares. That should have been part of the collection of the barangay,” Cabarrubias said.

CDN tried to get the comment of Kalunasan Barangay Captain Nunilon Monares regarding the situation, but repeated calls to his mobile phone number were not answered.