15 Cebu towns, cities lack waste management plan

A total of  38 out of  Cebu province’s 53 towns and cities  have submitted a 10-year solid waste management plan.

The modest compliance comes over a decade after the approval of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001.

Lawyer Czareem Estella, head of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) said the localities that  complied with the law are the municipalities of Pinamungajan, Badian,

Ronda, San Fernando, Carmen, Asturias, Daanbantayan, San Francisco, Moalboal, Oslob, Cordova, and the cities of Carcar, Mandaue, Toledo, Naga and Cebu City.

The Cebu provincial government through an executive order signed by then governor Gwendolyn Garcia created the Solid Waste Management Board  of Cebu province.

All localities are supposed to develop a solid waste management plan in order to ensure proper disposal of garbage,  set up a  material recovery facility and close  open dump sites.

Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, a member of the board, said she was disappointed with the  progress during yesterday’s meeting of the board.

“I’m embarrassed to say that we have not completed our solid waste management plan yet. We are appealing to the LGUs to be serious about this,” she said.

Estella said the deadline for submission of the plan is December 31 this year.

If the LGUs will not comply, the mayors may be charged.

Engr. Marco Andrew Silveron, solid waste coordinator of the EMB-7, said the National Solid Waste Management Commission will decide whether  to charge the LGUs for failure to implement the plan.

Every LGU is also required to have a material recovery facility and sanitary landfill.

Only the towns of Dalaguete, Asturias, Compostela and Consolacion and the cities of Talisay and Mandaue have sanitary landfills.

The vice governor said the province gave P50,000  each as financial aid to all barangays of the  53 cities and towns to  implement a solid  waste management plan.

The mayors failed to attend yesterday’s  meeting.  They went to Iloilo City for the League of Municipalities in the Philippines (LMP) assembly.

Some municipal planning and development council officers who represented their mayors during the Provincial Solid Waste Management Board meeting yesterday said they have not yet received the assistance.