Parañaque stinks amid 5,000 tons of garbage

MANILA, Philippines - At least 5,000 tons of garbage remain uncollected along Parañaque City’s roads yesterday as the city government scrambles to deploy personnel and dump trucks to clean up the mess.

The first priority of Mayor Edwin Olivarez, who assumed office Sunday, is “undertaking a full-force hauling of our garbage and hopefully clear our streets” after a private contractor stopped collecting the garbage two weeks before its contract expired on June 30, city administrator Ding Soriano told The STAR yesterday.

He said they are still reviewing the records left by the administration of Olivarez’s predecessor, Florencio Bernabe Jr., to determine if the contractor had been properly paid.

Soriano said the city government has mobilized all available vehicles to collect garbage.

According to a city hall source, the city’s 16 barangays generate an average of 362 tons of garbage a day while an average dump truck can only haul 3.25 tons of garbage per trip so it would take more than 100 trips to clear the city’s streets each day.

Olivarez said they are looking for a new contractor to collect garbage as he promised that the pileup of trash will not be repeated during his term.

In his inaugural speech on Monday, Olivarez said his administration inherited P3.8 billion in loans and payables – a P1.8-billion loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines as well as P2 billion in power and water bills and debts to suppliers and contractors.