Investigate ‘discrepancies’ in garbage logs

Barug Team Rama councilors want to be clarified of the volume of garbage actually taken from the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill transfer station for transfer into a private landfill facility in Consolacion town on a daily basis.

Records they acquired show that on June 22, Pasajero Motors Corporation (Pamocor) billed the Cebu City government around P1 million for hauling 785 tons or 41 truckloads of garbage from the Inayawan landfill.

However, Evo Ventures Inc., which operates the transfer station recorded only the hauling of 393 tons or 31 truckloads of garbage from the landfill on the same day.

The Evo recording shows that City Hall should only be made to pay P524,000 for the transaction and not the P1 million which Pamocor billed, said Barug Team Rama ally Councilor Jose Daluz III.

Opposition councilors wanted to be clarified of the discrepancy in the Pamocor and the EVO recordings.

“We want EVO and (the Department of Public Services) DPS to explain (the discrepancy). We have to know what happened because the garbage came from the same transfer station but the tonnage (recording) is different,” Daluz added.

Councilor Joel Garganera, former head of the council’s environment committee, is also seeking reassessment of the quality of service that Pamocor has rendered to the city after noticing that garbage volume continue to pile up at the transfer station.

Pamocor first won a P40 million contract from City Hall in June. They were given a second contract worth P26.8 million for the month of August.

“We have to relay this to the BAC (Bids and Awards Committee). They have to assess the performance of this present service provider (Pamocor). The fact alone that the garbage in the transfer station has not lessened, they are not being consistent of their mandate for daily hauling,” Garganera told reporters in a press conference held at his City Hall office on Thursday morning.

Garganera also alleged that DPS failed to enforce safeguards which include the need to deploy a functional weighting scale at the transfer station to make sure that Pamocor does not shortchange the city.

“They (DPS) failed to safeguard the interest of the city. I don’t know if this is negligence or if this is willful because these (safeguards) were present before. It is only now that we have no weighing scale and personnel to monitor (garbage hauling at the transfer station),” he said.

Councilor Raymond Garcia said suspicions on Pamocor operations cannot be avoided especially since company owners are among the campaign contributors of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

“Just to erase the cloud of doubt that there’s favoritism, we should have been more careful in dealing with Pamocor,” Garcia said.
Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr. of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) said concerns on the mounting garbage at the landfill will soon be addressed with Pamocor’s continued operation.

He also discount the possibility of Pamocor making up their recording of garbage hauled from the landfill’s transfer station.