City lacks garbage weighing scale to monitor volume

DOES City Hall really know the actual amount of garbage collected in Cebu City daily?

The Department of Public Services (DPS) apparently does not although millions of pesos are spent by the city on the services of Pasajero Motors Corp (Pamocor), a private hauler contracted by city hall.

According to city officials, DPS does not have its own weighing scale to measure the volume of garbage collected and hauled to a private landfill in Consolacion town.

Without its own weighing scale, the Cebu City government has no way of verifying the actual number of tons that it should be paying to Pamocor.

In the Cebu City Council’s regular session last Tuesday, Councilor Jose Daluz III raised the concern after receiving a DPS report on the total amount of garbage, the number of trips and money spent for hauling garbage in the months of June and July.

The amount recorded by DPS was solely based on what was recorded by the private landfill.

“I am concerned because we have spent and budgeted a lot for hauling services, it’s about P300 million for the whole year. So we want to know how the operations are conducted from transfer station to landfill,” Daluz said.

The City Council has asked DPS to propose the purchase of its own weighing scale or require their winning service provider to have one as part of the terms and reference for a hauling contract with the city.

DPS earlier said that their records on the total number of tons dumped at the private landfill was based on what was reported by the landfill operators.

City legislators frowned on the practice describing it as “very dangerous” to the city as there would be no way for the city to verify the amount recorded.

Daluz feared drivers of the hauling company may end up moonlighting by collecting more garbage from other sources and still charge it to the city government.

“That’s why it’s very important that before the trucks go out, Cebu City already has weighed the garbage and know how much garbage was loaded to a particular truck,” Daluz said.

Based on the DPS report, Pamocor, the city’s hauler in July, billed the city a total of P14.1 million from July 1 to 15. for a total of 10,607 tons of garbage collected at a price of P1,333 per ton.

Within this 15-day period, Pamocor managing director Jefferson Yu reported that they were able to dump between 537 tons to as much as 1,095 tons a day to the Consolacion landfill.

In a separate billing statement submitted by Pamocor for the period of June 16 to June 30, a total of 8,409 tons of garbage was reportedly collected for a fee of P11.2 million.

Within that period, Pamocor recorded dumping between 113 tons of garbage in one day to as much as 988 tons.

Councilor Joel Garganera, former head the council’s committee on environment, noted that DPS appeared to have no clue as to the actual amount of garbage being collected in the city daily.

DPS estimates earlier placed the number between 600 to 650 tons of garbage a day.

Councilor Raymond Garcia also raised concern on the city’s “alarming” increase in the volume of garbage.

“If we continue this, collecting without any reduction plan, we can reach 2,000 tons a day and spend billions a year,” Garcia said.