Cebu  City dads to look into complaint over foul smell from city, provincial jails discharges

The Cebu City Council has scheduled an executive session next month to address the complaint on the foul odor caused by discharges coming from the city and provincial jails in Barangay Kalunasan. /Irene R. Sino Cruz

CEBU CITY, Philippines–The Cebu City Council will hold an executive session next month to look into complaints on the foul odor caused by discharges coming from the city and provincial jails that are located in Barangay Kalunasan.

Legislators have requested for the the presence of officials from the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, City Health Department, the city’s Bids and Awards Committee, City Jail warden Renante Rubio, CPDRC OIC-warden Reynaldo Valmoria, and Barangay Kalunasan during the executive session scheduled on August 10.

Councilors are reacting to a complaint by lawyer Eugene Orbita on the foul odor has been causing inconvenience to visitors of the Langub Shrine.

The letter-complaint signed by Orbita, who is also lay minister and mass goer of the Langub Shrine, was sent to Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who chairs the council’s committee on environment. Sisters Francis Alinsob and Anthony Caingcoy, Langub Shrine curator and co-curator, also signed the letter.

“We write to you in our behalf and in behalf of the thousands of parishioners/residents/voters of Langub Shrine,” the complainants said.

The shrine is located 300 yards southeast of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) and the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation enter (CPDRC). Both facilities are also located in Barangay Kalunasan.

“These facilities have been found to have discharged their wastes (human and whatever) at the canal that runs through the Langub Shrine,” the letter said citing earlier findings by the Cebu City Health Department.

They recalled that last year, they filed a protest/appeal signed by more than 300 people before the previous mayor and governor, as well as the wardens of both facilities so they could correct this issue.

On June 2018, they filed a case before the Ombudsman against these officials when the latter did not take action on their protest.

However, on May 31, 2019, they received a copy of the Request for Assistance (RAS) disposition report  dated September 28, 2018 on the grounds that the case has been addressed by the concerned government offices.

The complaints said that they felt ‘aggrieved’ because there were no appropriate actions made to eliminate the foul smell coming from the two jail facilities.  In fact, they said that foul smell remained and have even become ‘unbearable at times.’

They added that the number of mass goers and pilgrims visiting the Langub Shrine have been dwindling because of the smell.

They requested that their concern be addressed possibly through the “laying of culverts or proper septic management.”

Councilor Dave Tumulak recalled that city government already set aside budget to address concerns on the city jail’s waste discharge. /dcb