END OF CONTRACT

The Cebu City government has stopped dumping garbage at the South Road Properties. Instead, it has found a temporary transfer area near the Inayawan landfill provided by Jomara Konstruckt. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Despite the December 31, 2016 expiration of the Purchase Order (PO), Jomara Konstruckt Corp. has not totally cleared the temporary transfer station at the South Road Properties (SRP) of garbage.

According to DPS assistant chief John Paul Gelasque, 30 percent of garbage dumped from December 17–31, 2016 still sit at the back of the warehouse of the Department of Public Services (DPS) at the SRP.

The city dumped about 500 tons of garbage per day or an estimated 7,500 tons of garbage within the 15-day period, but according to Gelasque, only 70 percent was hauled by Jomara Konstruckt.

Because of the emergency nature of the expenditure, it is as if the city government purchased the services of Jomara Konstruckt to haul the garbage and transfer it to a final dumping site.

The Cebu City government, however, has stopped dumping garbage at the SRP beginning January 1, 2017.

Gelasque said that this is to honor their commitment to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-7) to stop using the transfer station at the SRP.

“Right now kung magtan-aw mo sa DPS transfer station, makakita pa mo og mga nahabilin nga garbage pileup. (If you look at the DPS transfer station, you can still see a garbage pileup.) But I would like to make this clear that those garbage pileup likod sa (at the back of) DPS is the old garbage pileup thrown from Dec. 17 until Dec 31,” Gelasque said.

Contract

The city government has not yet paid Jomara Konstruckt.
According to General Services Office (GSO) head Ronaldo Malacora, who is also the chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), they are still waiting for DPS to send the billing for the payment of the services rendered by the private hauler.

But he pointed out that as far as the city is concerned, their hauling contract with Jomara has already ended.

“The contract has ended because it is only up to December 31. As to the next step, whether the city will do another emergency procurement or a bidding, it still has to be decided,” Malacora told CDN.

He said the BAC, the DPS and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will still meet this week to discuss what to do next.

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, however, said that what he understood from the contract was that Jomara Konstruckt was to collect 6,000 tons of garbage and it did not matter if it would go beyond December 31.

“The contract remains maka-get sila og 6,000 tons. Probably they will stop unless there is a continuing contract. Dili ingon kutob ra gyud siya December 31 (Not necessarily only up to Dec. 31),” Garganera told CDN.

He, however, was unsure if the emergency procurement given to the mayor could still extend to this month, though he said he will support giving Osmeña another emergency procurement.

Gelasque, for his part, said that January would most probably be covered by an emergency purchase similar to that covering December 17 to 31.

“After second emergency purchase, I think the mayor will go to bidding (already) for permanent hauler,” he said.

Gelasque said there is no assurance that Jomara Konstruckt would still get the contract covered by the second procurement.

Garbage trucks from the different barangays of Cebu City now dump their garbage at two private lots in Inayawan which now serve as transfer stations. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Purchase order

Under the purchase order (PO) for the hauling services signed by Osmeña and Jomara, the latter can only haul the city’s garbage until December 31.

The PO also specifies that the city will pay Jomara depending on the total volume of garbage they haul from the SRP transfer station all the way to the final dumping site or landfill of their choice.

The city will pay P1,375 per ton of garbage hauled by Jomara. The amount includes the service provider’s heavy equipment, dump trucks and the tipping fees at the landfill of their choice.

According to Gelasq ue, had Jomara Konstruckt started on time, they would have been able to clear the SRP transfer station of garbage.

“If nagsugod pa’g sayo ang Jomara, mahurot g’yud na siya (the garbage at SRP) pero late naman nagsugod. Pag Dec. 28 na man sila nagsugod so wala nahurot og haul kay limited ang oras (If the company started earlier, the garbage at SRP would have been totally cleared. But they started Dec. 28 so there was very limited time),” Gelasque said.

Gelasque explained that considering it was the holiday season and there was a typhoon, Jomara could not bring their equipment to Cebu sooner.

Two transfer stations

For the first two days of this year, Gelasque said the city utilized two private lots in Barangay Inayawan, which are just beside the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, as temporary transfer stations.

Gelasque clarified that although the two transfer stations were private lots, the city did not spend for it because Jomara was the one who entered into a contract for the two transfer stations and paid for them.

“I would like to make this clear. The city government has nothing to do with the two transfer stations. It is Jomara, Emma Ramas and Edwin Ortiz who are parties to the contract and not Cebu City,” Gelasque said.

The two lots are owned by siblings Marichu, Emilio Jr. and Jerome Jaca and leased by Ramas and Ortiz.

Gelasque said Jomara paid for the use of the lots as a transfer station as a gesture of goodwill, having started late in hauling the garbage at SRP.

Gelasque said there are still about 30 percent of garbage, accumulated from Dec. 17 to 31, that sit at the SRP.

There were still at least five dump trucks and four backhoes on standby at SRP owned by Jomara Konstruckt.