City waste body seeks garbage fees revisions

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board wants the collection of garbage fees among private establishments in the city reformed.

Lawyer Jade Ponce, CCSWMB chairperson, said there is a need to amend City Ordinance 1361, which established a garbage fees collection system in the city, as it is already “outdated.”

He said, though, that the specifics on the increase would be further deliberated upon by the board.

Ponce said what establishments are paying are only regulatory fees and not the cost of actual waste generated.

He said the collection of garbage fees should not be based on the area of the establishment but rather on the volume of garbage it generates in a day.

“The board is planning for a reform on how we charge garbage fees. For the longest time since 1990s, our fees sa garbage fees are based on the type of business and its size. When we reviewed [garbage fees ordinance] it doesn’t answer kay the amount generated on garbage is not dependent on the size of the area,” he added. 

For instance, he said, a warehouse that occupies a 150,000 square meter area generates less garbage compared to a 100,000-square-meter fastfood chain.

“It’s unfair for a bodega to be charged more,” Ponce said.

He said the city collects from private establishments for garbage fees P60 million a year, which is a lot less than the P300 million a year spent in the collection and disposal of wastes.

The city is paying P700 for every ton of garbage brought to a private landfill in Consolacion town following the closure of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill after its 15-year lifetime had lapsed.

“We need to reform because daghan kaayo mga plano but without the resources at hand dili nato masulbad ang problema sa basura,” Ponce said. 

Ponce has advised establishments to practice waste recycling to generate less garbage so they would pay lesser fees.

“It will be now under the principle ‘you generate more you pay more.’ If you don’t want to pay more you generate less garbage by recycling, reusing, and reducing garbage,” he said.

The Solid Waste Management Act provides that “The local government unit shall impose fees in amounts sufficient to pay the costs of preparing, adopting, and implementing a solid waste management plan prepared pursuant to this Act.”—(FREEMAN)