City waste hauling-tipping deals up for more study

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city government will further study the proposed waste tipping deals with the engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) facilities in Capas, Tarlac and in Urdaneta City.

City executives and councilors on Tuesday agreed to refer the matter to the city legal office to study the feasibility of conducting a bidding to choose the better set-up.

Earlier, members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) led by chair City General Services officer Romeo Concio issued BAC Resolution No. 13-08 recommending the award of the ESL services to Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation (MCWMC) after the Tarlac facility lowered its tipping fee from P800 to P550 per metric ton.

            

But the city has a pending agreement with N4th Enterprises which brokered the tipping services to the Urdaneta City ESL.  The memorandum of agreement was signed last December by Mayor Mauricio Domogan and company proprietress Maria Rhodora Flores and is still up for confirmation and not confirmed as earlier reported (my apologies for the erroneous report –APR) by the city council.

            

Domogan said he signed the agreement in December because it offered the best option for the city to save on waste disposal cost at that time.

            

MCWMC presented to the city BAC its lowered tipping cost last February after the decision was made by the new management, according to general manager Rolando Tongco.

The BAC reassessed the total costs of ESL services for both facilities based on the new rates and found out that MCWMC’s services would entail lower cost at P1,350 per ton as against the P1,522 that will be spent for the Urdaneta facility.

The MOA with N4th MOA allows the city to dispose 150 tons of residual and mixed solid wastes daily to the Urdaneta facility through Flores at a tipping fee rate of P972 per ton.

“(The) hauling of waste at the (MCWMC) will be advantageous to the City Government of Baguio since this will mean a total savings of P172/ton more or less,” the BAC Resolution noted.

           

The said resolution will be returned to BAC as the city considers what action to take on the pending deals.

            

The mayor expressed hopes that a compromise will be achieved so that the interests of the city and the companies will not be compromised. 

            

Concio said the possibility of conducting a “package bidding” will be considered.  By package bidding, both hauling and tipping services will be lumped in the bids, Concio said.