Baguio gaining ground in solving garbage problem

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY – The city government is now gaining ground in solving the controversial trash problem of this summer capital which had claimed at least five lives at the height of a recent storm after the Irisan dumpsite collapsed and buried the victims.

This developed after Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the management of the Pro Tech Machinery Corporation to collect the garbage of the city for an experimental period of one month at its own expense in order to augment the current work force of the city government involved in the collection of garbage in the city’s 128 barangays.

Complying with its commitment to help the city government collect its generated waste in the city’s 128 barangays, Pro Tech has brought in 17 additional garbage trucks to start their enormous task of collecting the city’s garbage and hauling out the city’s residual and recyclable wastes to its property in Rosales, Pangasinan.

While the former Irisan open dumpsite is permitted as the sorting and transfer area of residuals and recyclables, Domogan emphasized it is the direction of the City Government to discontinue utilizing the same for the said purpose contrary to the misinformation campaign being launched by his critics that the dumpsite is being used still as a dumping area for the city’s trash.

Earlier, Pro Tech Machinery Corporation volunteered at no cost to the City Government to help collect the generated garbage from the designated pick-up points in the different barangays in accordance to the collection schedules and subsequently haul them directly out of Baguio on a temporary basis while the City Government is still looking for a permanent transfer station for its non-biodegradable waste.

Another thing going for the city government is the rapid increase in the compliance of the city’s 128 barangays to the segregation of garbage at source considering that 70 percent of the barangays are now complying with the no segregation no collection policy which means that unsegregated garbage being brought to the collection areas will be returned to the household for him or her to segregate the same in front of the barangay officials.

If there are households become perennial violators of the no segregation no collection policy, Domogan requested barangay officials or their duly authorized representatives to executive the necessary affidavits to support the filing of charges for violation of the provisions of Republic Act (
RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

The city mayor admitted the current problems being encountered by the city government in the collection and disposal of garbage is the birth pains of the system in a bid to trying to perfect it, thus, the need for the cooperation of local residents in order to perfect the system so that biodegradable waste will be directly fed to the two Environmental Recycling System (ERS) machines while the non-biodegradable waste will be hauled out of the city.