Mandaue City’s garbage will soon be dumped at the new landfill in the mountain Barangay of Binaliw in Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Mandaue City Council will hold an emergency session on Thursday morning, May 9, to decide on a proposal to transfer the disposal of the city’s garbage to the landfill facility in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City.
Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna, the council’s presiding officer and co-chairperson of the city’s Solid Waste Management Board, said they needed to immediately address the concern on garbage disposal which stemmed from the closure of the sanitary landfill in Consolacion town operated by Asian Energy Systems Corp.
The landfill ceased operation following a landslide on Saturday which covered a garbage truck driver. Retrieval operations for the recovery of truck driver’s remains continue.
Fortuna said they already negotiated with ARN Builders, the firm that operates the Binaliw landfill, to allow the city to temporarily dispose its wastes into the facility while they continue to comply with documentary requirements.
“The (27) barangays have been instructed already that they can start disposing their wastes already at the facility of ARN Builders in Binaliw because we were able to negotiate at least temporarily,” Fortuna said in an interview on Wednesday, May 8.
Fortuna said the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) also conducted an emergency meeting earlier today, May 8, to review the bid documents submitted by ARN Builders.
Mandaue City will be paying P700 per ton of garbage that will be disposed into the facility, the same amount that the city government used to pay to the operator of the Consolacion landfill.
Fortuna explained that awarding a contract for waste disposal is not covered by the election ban since it is an emergency concern.
“This is an emergency given the situation nga nisara gyud ang (Consolacion) landfill. Wa na man tay lain option kay DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) told us nga we cannot throw again sa dumpsite nato sa Umapad,” Fortuna said.
Fortuna also said that they would also prefer use of the Binaliw landfill because the facility is “safer and easier to access.” /dcb