#BBC

I had the privilege of codifying the ordinances of seven local government units. The first work I did was for Bayawan City, Negros Oriental. This codification project was done in 2005 yet and, as a matter of fact, I was also given the chance to revise their codes in 2019. The latest codification I labored on was that of Bogo City. To put a smile on your lips, I coin #BBC to refer to Bayawan-Bogo Cities or Bayawan-Bogo Connection or for my children Belynda, Benvenuti, Byron, Beatriz, Charisse, and my lady Carmen.

There were about 100 ordinances that I collated in writing the Bayawan City Code of Environment, Health, and Sanitation. I specifically remember that code because in the process of drafting it, I came across their ordinance establishing the city’s landfill. I needed to find a proper place for that ordinance in the code. To imbibe deeper that city’s legislation, I visited the landfill and marveled at what I saw. I learned that the system used was introduced by no less than a United Nations consultant on Environment who got married to a native of the city.

Candidly, my college background doesn’t make me an expert on environmental issues and I don’t pretend to know better than anyone. Even then, I have to claim Bayawan City’s 21-hectare facility ranks better than the many I have seen, including that privately-owned dumpsite in Barangay Binaliw where Cebu City throws its garbage. Let me compare it to an American-standard landfill. Californians are proud of the landfill in Manteca City. Tons of literature have been written to extol its environment-friendly operation. And so, I visited that place, went around its huge complex and observed its highly-mechanized operation. I still could smell some unpleasant odor prevalent in such places. The foul smell, natural where waste is thrown, was reduced to minimal that I didn’t even have to cover my nose. But, in Bayawan, it was different. I ate my snacks right beside a huge structure without smelling anything that would make me puke. My guide later told me it was a depositary of human waste.

Encouraged by what I saw in Bayawan, I dared to write in this column a suggestion to our city leadership to find time to visit the Bayawan City landfill and, perhaps, replicate it. I did that in a number of writeups. I even wrote about a place where it could be built. An area bounded by Barangays Kalunasan, Busay, and Lahug could be an ideal site for such a solid waste disposal facility. This was pointed to by the late mayor Ronald Duterte. But, our city leaders have other priorities than listening to opinions of insignificant mortals. They know everything, after all. I was told our collective officialdom prefers a waste-to-energy kind of system and the city has reportedly signed a MOA for this last year. Indeed, if we have the MOA, it is still a document compared to Danao City which has already embarked on the project.

As Cebu City waits for a kind of modern waste disposal facility, the other B in the #BBC seems to upstage our city also. Bogo City, in recently announcing the on-going construction of its own landfill, apparently beats Cebu City. This was not covered by a relevant ordinance when I drafted the Bogo City Environmental Management Code. A seven-hectare facility, small though it may be, is calculated to match what the city and surrounding LGUs need in the next 20 years. The important thing is that Bogo City owns it. Cebu City needs one or something better, to be Singapore-like, but sadly, it has none as of YET.