With more questions raised on the use of the city’s Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) funds to pay for garbage hauling services, Cebu City Hall is turning to another source to fund the P26.8 million budget needed for the garbage hauling for the month of August.
John Paul Gelasque, Department of Public Services (DPS) assistant head, said they have decided to use part of the DPS’ approved P151.2 million allocation under the Supplemental Budget (SB) 1 for its latest emergency purchase.
“We cannot wait (for the proposal to use the Pagcor funds). It was deferred by the City Council for one week. We cannot wait anymore since next Tuesday is already August. It’s already far. We cannot afford to let more garbage in and not hauling them out,” Gelasgue told reporters in Cebuano.
He said the city’s current service provider Pasajero Motors Corp. (Pamocor) has already informed them that their current P40 million budget is expected to be depleted between July 27 to 30.
But Gelasque assured that the city’s hauling operations remain normal as of now since Pamocor still has some more tons of garbage that they need to haul out in order to fully utilize their current budget.
Some city councilors have questioned the proposal of DPS to use the city’s share from Pagcor for the P26.8 million needed budget for garbage hauling for August, saying it is not included in the list of qualified projects under the funds guidelines.
The Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) has already started the emergency procurement process.
But even with the change in budget source, Gelasque said the emergency procurement will push through.
He said they are now waiting for Mayor Tomas Osmeña to sign their purchase request.
Meanwhile, BAC chairman Ronaldo Malacora said they have already completed the canvassing of the interested service providers for the city’s garbage hauling program.
Of the three interested companies, Pamocor still gave the lowest price quotation of P1,327 per ton.
The other two providers are Jomara Konstruckt Corp., which gave a price of P1,333 per ton and JJ and J Construction and General Supply which gave a price of P1,350 per ton.