Return mixed garbage to erring households, mayor tells officials

By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CIIY -- After threatening to seal sewage pipes polluting waterways, mayor Mauricio Domogan told barangay officials to implement a similar “return-to-sender” action on mixed garbage to give teeth to the city’s “no-segregation, no-collection” policy in solid waste management.

“Isubli yo ti aglalaok nga basura idiay balay ti saan nga nag-segregate ti rugit da (Return mixed garbage to the houses of those who don’t segregate their trash),” the mayor told barangay officials at a recent meeting of the “Alay sa Kalinisan”, a public-private partnership at the forefront of the city’s environmental thrusts.

Earlier, the mayor told the Alay that illegal sewage pipes draining into the Balili River should be plugged so erring house and building owners would get a dose of their own liquid waste.

“Let us seal with concrete these pipes draining into the river,” the mayor said in response to a briefing by volunteers of an academe-led effort to restore back to life the polluted river that flows from Baguio to Benguet and La Union.

Earlier, Domogan issued an administrative order deputizing barangay treasurers to collect garbage fees in a move to narrow down the wide gap between the increasing cost of solid waste management and garbage fee collection.

The city spends over P100 million yearly for garbage management but collects only an average of P18 million in garbage fees, he stressed.

As incentive, the barangays shall be entitled to 30 percent of the garbage fees they collect, with the share increased to as much as 60 percent depending on the collection efficiency level.

He cited the city’s Tax Ordinance No. 2001-01, amended by Tax Ordinance 2003-03 which “provides for a sharing scheme for garbage fees collected at the barangay level as a way of increasing collection efficiency that can serve as an incentive to support b arangay-based solid waste management initiatives”.

The ordinance, he noted, also imposes the following penalties for indiscriminate dumping, littering and violation of the “no-segregation, no-collection policy”: warning for the first offense and fines of P500 and P1,000 for the second and third offenses.

In Administrative Order No. 132 he issued last October, the mayor directed the offices of the city treasurer, city accountant and city environment and parks management to conduct a training for duly bonded barangay treasurers on the mechanics for efficient garbage fee collection and remittance.

He directed the barangays to submit a master list of households availing of the city’s solid waste management services for sub mission to the said city offices, and to update the list every first quarter, for submission on or before March 30.

The city’s schedule of garbage fees on a monthly basis is as follows: P300 for hospitals and funeral parlors; P200 for dormitories, boarding and lodging houses; P75 for three-unit apartments; P150 for over-three-unit apartments;

Hotels, hostels, motels , inns and condominiums: P75 for those with less than 25 rooms; P150 for those with 25 to 49 rooms; P250 for those with 50 to 100 rooms; P300 for those with over 100 rooms;

Restaurants, carinderias, eateries and refreshment parlors, nightclub s, disco houses, cocktail lounges, beer gardens, bar and liquor stores: P100 for those with seating capacity of less than 25 customers; P150 – 25 to 49 seating capacity; P200 – 50 to 100; P250 – over one hundred seating capacity;

Banks, drugstores, bazaars, bakeries, hardware stores, auto supplies, appliance, grocery and department stores – P150; beauty parlors, offices, radio stations, sari-sari stores and other establishments not specifically mentioned in this ordinance – P50;

Preparatory/elementary/high schools/colleges/universities/vocational schools and review centers: P50 for those with less than 50 enrollees; P100 for those with 50 to 500 enrollees; P200- 501 to 1,000 enrollees; P300 (1001-5000); P400 (5001 to 10000);

Households in barangays where garbage trucks collect garbage and served by the city collection system – P20; bus, jeepney and other transportation terminals and private pay parking areas – P200; stalls in the city public market and satellite markets – P100;

Theaters, gymnasiums, audio-visual rooms, athletic salons and physical fitness centers – P200; medical and dental clinics, therapeutic salons, spas and massage parlors – P150.