Rama wants state of emergency in Inayawan after closure of transfer station

With the closure of the Inayawan Transfer Station in effect starting today, July 7, Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama is pushing for the declaration of a state of emergency in Barangay Inayawan to ensure that garbage collection will be unhampered.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama is planning to push for a state of emergency in Barangay Inayawan following the closure of the transfer station there.

The Environment Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) closed the city’s only transfer station due to environmental violations of the operators particularly the piling garbage reaching 10.8 meters high.

Rama said the garbage dilemma following this closure is “unfortunate” because there is a domino effect to the collection and disposal of the city’s waste.

“A state of emergency is no longer apparent, it is now imminent,” said Rama.

Rama said that when he found out about the issue last month as Acting Mayor, he has requested the City Council to declare a state of emergency.

However, the council at that time opted not to declare a state of emergency after the Department of Public Services (DPS) said that the garbage situation is manageable despite a contractual issue between the transfer operator and Binaliw landfill operator affecting the hauling of the garbage.

This time, the EMB-7 has found out more violations in the transfer station that needs to be immediately addressed and Rama said the city government should have an immediate backup as well.

Councilor Joel Garganera, the environment committee chair of the council, said that he expected a cease and desist order to be issued when he saw how high the garbage pile stood in the transfer station in one of their inspections.

Garganera pointed out that the area looked more like a dumpsite than a transfer station, an observation echoed by the EMB-7 in their report.

“For the last five months, we are not in control of the situation. Even the DPS cannot provide a report because they are dependent on the contractor. The right thing to do is for the city government to be on top of the situation,” said Garganera.

He asked the DPS to take back control of the garbage system and fix it for the long term.

DPS head, Lawyer John Jigo Dacua told CDN Digital that while the transfer station is closed, all garbage trucks in the city will dispose directly to the Binaliw or Consolacion landfills.

The contractor of the transfer station will help the city collect garbage directly from the barangays and dispose of this at the landfill.

Due to contractual issues between the transfer station operator with the Binaliw landfill operator, their trucks will have to dispose of garbage at Consolacion town while the city’s own trucks and the barangays’ trucks will dispose at the Binaliw Landfill.

Councilor Eduardo Rama, Jr., the committee chair for public services, said the closure of the transfer station will be a burden to southern barangays.

He said that the southern barangays do not have enough resources to dispose of its garbage as far as Barangay Binaliw, much more in Consolacion town.

“I am more concerned on what will happen after ani,” he said.

Vice Mayor Rama plans to raise his concerns to the council on their next regular session scheduled on Friday or Wednesday next week.

He said this should be a priority because the barangays will suffer through the closure whether the closure is short or long.

Rama hopes for the support of the City Council so that they can allocate disaster funds to help the affected barangays.      /rcg

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