Garbague trucks from Cebu city’s barangays wait in line to dump their trash in the Consolacion landfill in this January 26, 2015 file photo. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Cebu City Hall will ask the management of the private landfill in Consolacion town and the private haulers operating a garbage transfer station in the city’s southern barangays to continue receiving the city’s garbage even without payment.
“There will always be a way because this is a public service. We cannot just stop delivering public service. We’ve been (availing of their services). That can be an edge also. It could not be something that will be taken against us,” Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said.
Rama said the city government will continue to collect and dump the garbage generated daily by the city’s inhabitants.
The City Council didn’t act on a proposal to use P50 million of the city’s unused calamity funds from previous years to pay for the tipping fee of P700 per ton at the private landfill in its special session last Monday.
The city generates 460 tons of garbage daily of which 200 tons are collected and dumped by the city’s own trucks.
Mindful
The remaining 260 tons are disposed through a private hauler, mostly collected from the south barangays.
The city pays the private hauler P1,500 per ton of garbage which already includes the P700 tipping fee.
Councilor Margot Osmeña said under a joint memorandum circular on the use of unexpended calamity funds, a revision of the city’s Annual Investment Plan (AIP) has to be done first before the council can approve any charges to the amount.
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She said the city government should be mindful of the adverse observations made by state auditors of the Commission on Audit (COA) on how it spends public funds.
“What’s important to me is are they going to help or are they not going to help? That’s what has to be resolved. Are they going to obstruct what is going to make the garbage situation better than it used to be or make Cebu City dirty?” Rama said.
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Former city councilor Edu Rama, who heads the city government’s Gubat sa Basura (War on Garbage) program, proposed requesting the private landfill and private haulers to extend the city’s credit. He also proposed the reopening of the Inayawan landfill but Mayor Rama is against it.
“I will never agree to that,” he said. Rama ordered the closure of the landfill last January 15.