Controversial garbage hauling in Baguio City to be privatized

BAGUIO CITY – The city council has authorized Mayor Reinaldo A. Bautista Jr. to enter into a contract with a private contractor for hauling of over 300 tons of waste collected daily to avert an impending garbage crisis even as controversy hounds the issue.

The crisis looms as the city government failed to find a site where to establish its permanent sanitary landfill. The fund for the privatization of the hauling of the city’s waste will come from the five percent reserve appropriation in the P1-billion executive budget this year.

The city’s chief executive said the plan to bid out the hauling of the city’s waste to the sanitary landfill in Tarlac or elsewhere is based on the practice of cities in the National Capital Region which have entered into contracts with private firms for the hauling of waste. He also noted that these cities allot five percent of their executive budgets for the purpose.

Under the scheme, this mountain resort city is going to earmark P50 million (representing five percent of the P1-billion budget) for the hauling of garbage to Tarlac.

However, some haulers, who hauled the city’s garbage in the past, said the allocation to be provided for the hauling of the city’s garbage is small because of the high maintenance and operating expenses.

Earlier, city officials and departmentheads shared the view that waste reduction is one of the primary programs the city government should implement to cut expenses for the hauling of waste.

Since July 2008, the city government has spent at least P180 million for the hauling of the city’s waste to Capas, Tarlac.

The city department heads said waste reduction could be done if the city pursues its plan to construct materials recovery facilities for the 18 clusters of barangays.

After it failed to look for a landfill site in neighboring towns, the city government is considring again Barangay Sto. Tomas Apugan in this city as an area where to construct its long overdue engineered sanitary landfill. – Dexter A. See