Budget for landfill depleted - DPS

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government is running out of budget to pay for the private landfill where the city is dumping its garbage.

Department of Public Services (DPS) chief Dionesio Gualiza that the P30 million budget for the payment of the private landfill in Consolacion is already depleted.

He has asked Mayor Michael Rama to allocate another P30 million in the next supplemental budget.

Otherwise, the city could no longer pay its obligation to the owner of the private landfill that the city is using in Barangay Pulog.

Rama said he will ask the members of the Local Finance Committee to speed up the preparation of the supplemental budget to include the allocation for the tipping fee.

In yesterday’s press briefing at the City Hall, Gualiza told the reporters that every day, about 400 tons of garbage are transported to the private landfill and the city is paying P700 for every ton of waste.

This means that the city spends P280,000 of tipping fee daily or P8.4 million a month and close to P100 million for the entire year.

“Mao kini karon ang dako namo nga problema sa DPS,” said Gualiza.

Gualiza said the executive department proposed P85 million budget for the tipping fee but the amount was slashed to only P30 million.

He added the city is also paying P1,700 per ton of wastes to the three private garbage haulers hired and the amount is also taken from the P30 million budget.

The contract of the private provider of garbage truck will expire in a few months.

The city has already purchased five new brand new garbage trucks a few months ago and there are now 23 existing garbage trucks assigned to the DPS.

But the city will soon be acquiring additional 22 brand new garbage trucks.

The mayor wants a 24/7 collection of garbage to keep the entire city always clean and the city is giving additional honorarium to the barangay garbage collectors.  (FREEMAN)