CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Public Service is expecting to collect today about 60 to 80 tons of waste from Cebu City’s public cemeteries.
DPS assistant department head Randy Navarro said that is for the two days, Nov. 1 and 2, when the cemeteries were full of visitors. However, he said this is a far cry from the waste collected after the Sinulog grand parade this year when they collected 115 tons for that one-day celebration.
“Di pareha sa Sinulog nga moabot og 100 tons. Depende pud og mag-uwan (as waste weight increases). Karon 60 to 80 tons kay mga buwak ra man na kargado, ug mga styro,” Navarro said.
He said metro aides, barangay environmental officers and garbage collectors already did the clearing up at dawn yesterday at the city’s public cemeteries to prepare them for yesterday’s visitors. At dawn yesterday, the same groups are also scheduled to do the final clearing operations.
Meanwhile, Navarro admitted that the no-segregation no-collection policy, which has been implemented late last year, is hitting a setback.
He blamed the lack of working garbage trucks in the barangays. He said the garbage trucks have to be in good working condition as garbage has to be brought directly to the private landfill in Consolacion.
Albeit the council wants the contract rescinded, Armed Builders, a private firm, is still using its dump trucks and other heavy equipment in transferring the city’s garbage to Consolacion.
Navarro, whose name was dragged into the controversy, said he has no direct connection with the said firm and has surrendered his authority, being head of the Landfill operations, on the implementation of the contract to Engr. Dionisio Gauliza, DPS head.
Last September the council passed a resolution requesting Mayor Michael Rama to revoke the contract with Armed Builders for alleged irregularities and blamed Navarro for letting it happen. Navarro said he neither has any direct connection with the firm nor any say on how it deploys its trucks to Consolacion.
The city has an average 450-500 tons of waste collected daily, about 220 tons of these is transferred to Consolacion. The rest stays at the supposed closed Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, said Navarro. He said if the city invests in new trucks for all 80 barangays that would solve the problem.
He said presently the barangays use their own trucks, mostly of them dilapidated, to bring their waste to Inayawan to be sorted out. And since Consolacion only accepts fresh waste not more than a day old, a huge chunk is left at Inayawan’s sorting facility, the rest is carried by Armed Builders trucks to Consolacion.
Navarro said if all barangays had good garbage trucks, then they can directly proceed to Consolacion without having to make a stopover at Inayawan, thereby saving cost to the city. If this happens, he said they can already go ahead and close the Inayawan landfill for good. –(FREEMAN)