DPS chief: Half of garbage backlog already disposed

At least half of the more than 3,000 tons of garbage deposits at the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill transfer station were already taken from the area and disposed to a private landfill facility in Barangay Pulpogan in Consolacion town.

Roberto Cabarrubias, head of the Department of Public Services, said that removal of the garbage pile has also reduced stench at the transfer station.

Pasajero Motors (Pamocor), which won the city’s garbage hauling contract, is expected to clear the area of garbage deposits before their one-month contract with City Hall ends on June 30.

Franklyn Ong, Pamocor owner, has promised to bring in more garbage trucks to transport garbage from the Inayawan transfer station to Consolacion town, said Cabarrubias.

Pamocor, which started to haul garbage upon the issuance of a notice to proceed on June 6, first deployed one backhoe and 22 garbage trucks when they started their operations.

On Saturday, Ong sent two more backhoes and 10 additional garbage trucks to haul garbage from Inayawan to the Consolacion landfill.

Cabarrubias said that Ong made a commitment to further increase the number of trucks being used in garbage hauling to a total of 70.

He said the stench coming from the city’s transfer station was a result of delays in the awarding of Pamocor as the new contractor.

“Ni-accumulate na ang basura tungod sa delay sa pag-award sa contract to Pamocor,” he said.

Cabarrubias said that Jomara Konstrukt Corp., which earlier won the city’s garbage disposal contract, protested the awarding of the June 2017 garbage hauling contract to Pamocor.

Jomara lost the June 2017 contract because of their failure to submit a 2017 tax clearance as among the documentary requirements sought by the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

Because of the need to first resolve Jomara’s protest, the notice to award for the June 2017 garbage hauling contract was only issued to Pamocor on June 6.

Pamocor started to haul garbage on the same day.

Cebu City produces around 600 tons of garbage per day. Garbage left uncollected at the Inayawan transfer station in six days accummulated to around 3, 600 tons, said Cabarrubias.

Under the contract, Pamocor will charge the city P1,333 per ton of garbage hauled from the city transfer station.

Cabarrubias said Pamocor will be paid from DPS savings amounting to around P40 million while they await approval of their P174-million additional budget request that is among the items that will be included in the next Supplemental Budget.

The P174-million budget request will cover the cost of garbage disposal for the months of July to December. This will already be in addition to the P121-million allocation for garbage disposal that is included in the city’s 2017 budget.