A city-owned landfill, a Duterte dream

Among my favorite literary lines is “nothing is that never was a dream”. This truly is an inspirational phrase. It encapsulates the idea that man’s accomplishments and realities start with an initial vision or aspiration. This quotation, if we can call it as such, has a memorable personal connection to me. It was printed on a book marker which my lady, Carmen, gave me decades ago. She inserted that book marker in the book of former chief justice Ramon Aquino, the Revised Penal Code volume II, which was my textbook in Law school.

I remember this quote in relation to a disaster that happened in Barangay Binaliw, here in Cebu City, few days ago. The reported site of the incident is a privately-owned landfill facility. There was a landslide there. Lives were lost as other people were injured when a tall pile of garbage slid, pinning in the process, workers.

The disaster only highlighted the inability of many city administrations to appreciate and actualize the idea of the late mayor Ronald Duterte. It was in the mid ’80s when Duterte, a doctor of Civil Law from Universidad de Madrid, Spain dreamt of establishing a landfill in our city. We then had a dumpsite in Barangay Inayawan.

One morning, Dr. Duterte invited me for a cup of coffee in his mountain resort somewhere in Barangay Babag. The place was surrounded by beautiful roses which the city’s first lady cultivated. I was made to understand that the resort was built overlooking convergent portions of Barangays Lahug, Busay, Kalunasan, and Guadalupe. While sipping coffee, the mayor mentioned that the lower portion would be a good site for a landfill, for at least two good reasons. The economics of its operation would be a no-brainer.

First, the location would just be practically the center of the city. Garbage trucks from extreme northern and southern ends of the city would not have to travel long distances to bring their loads of garbage. To highlight this item, garbage trucks from Barangay Pardo in the South District of the city would, at present times, haul garbage to the landfill situated Binaliw which is located as the farthest city barangay in the North District. So, in the dream of Mayor Duterte, there would be faster turnaround of vehicles, lesser fuel, and lower maintenance cost if the landfill were in the Lahug, Busay, Kalunsan, and Guadalupe quadrangle.

Second. The area then pointed by Dr. Duterte appeared to be a valley. Per the former mayor’s estimate, entire space could be more than 20 hectares in area. The slopes of the surrounding hills would naturally isolate the landfill although the visible gaps in the terrain on the Guadalupe and Kalunasan side and on the Lahug-Busay side would make easy vehicular access. If trees were planted surrounding the entire area, there would probably no environmental issues to arise.

I wrote several articles bringing to the attention of the city’s leaders this dream of Dr. Duterte. In some of those writings, I mentioned about the landfills in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, and Manteca City, California, which could rank as ideally operated. A UN technocrat who married a native Bayawanon built the landfill there and I was informed that the city officials were willing to spare copies of the plans so that it could be replicated here.

I like to believe that there were also good reasons why our leaders refused to build the city’s own landfill. With the disaster in the Binaliw privately-owned landfill closing effectively its availability for our refuse, the city is primed to making the dream of Mayor Ronald Duterte a reality.