The city’s garbage will again be dumped in the Inayawan landfill, which is expected to be reopened next week. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Councilor Cabrera: City can reopen landfill without EMB-7’s permission
Whether the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) 7 give their permission or not, the Cebu City government will still re-open the sanitary landfill at Barangay Inayawan next week.
Outgoing Cebu City Councilor Nida Cabrera said yesterday that this is because the city is not asking permission from the EMB to reopen the landfill, but what the city did was send a request to the agency for the city to use again the landfill.
“Wala tay permits gipangayo. Duna lang tay request from them para utilization balik of landfill kay wala pa may final order ang EMB for closure (We didn’t ask for permits. We only requested from them for the use of the landfill again because there is still no final order from them for the total closure of the landfill),” she said.
Cabrera reiterated that a closure order would only be issued unless the city would submit a closure plan to the EMB.
She said that since it’s only the city government that ordered the closure of the landfill last year, then there would be no problem in reopening it, and it could be legally done, too.
Outgoing Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama ordered the landfill’s closure in Jan. 15, 2015.
DIALOGUE
However, William Cuñado, EMB-7 head, said he would meet with City Hall officials on Monday to discuss the city government’s landfill plan.
Cuñado said he already received City Hall’s request to reopen the landfill so that they could accommodate 300 tons of the city’s monthly garbage.
He said they would evaluate the proposal.
“We need to sit down so we could come up with some guidelines on what should be done to protect the environment,” Cuñado told CDN over the phone.
Cabrera also said the city government was identifying the violations in the past so that these could be addressed.
“Part of the considerations that we asked to reopen the landfill is the large payment to a private landfill in Consolacion town. We are paying P10 million to P14 million per month for the tipping fees only. If we include the cost of gasoline and other expenses, then this will reach P20 million per month,” she said in Cebuano.
Aside from the cost, Cabrera said the city government also needed to comply with the requirement of a contract, which is based on the recommendation of the Commission on Audit, which had an adverse opinion to the city’s deal with the Asian Energy Corp., the owner of the private landfill.
Cabrera said the city had no contract with Asian Energy Corp. since the city was using only purchase orders.
Cabrera said incoming Mayor Tomas Osmeña doesn’t want a no-contract system between the city and the private service provider.
She said the city would go back to zero and would process everything so that this would be legally done before the city would resume dumping garbage in Consolacion.
“Initially, we can still dump garbage there (Inayawan landfill). There’s a possibility to use for a year or two the landfill just to implement our process,” she said in Cebuano.
“That area will just serve as a waste processing and recovery center. That is what we are requesting to the EMB,” she said in Cebuano.
She said the city government can use the vacant spaces in the landfill while it is working on the legal documents with Asian Energy Corp. for the city to continue dumping garbage at the Consolacion landfill.
Aside from developing the road networks to the landfill, Cabrera said they are also recovering the leachate pond.
“We can’t just dump our garbage there without an area to store our leachate. If the leachate pond will be done by Monday, then we can already start dumping garbage there,” she said in Cebuano.