Baguio council hits okay of waste plan without approval

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY –  City councilors questioned the city solid waste management board why the NSWMC passed the city’s amended 10-year solid waste management plan without being approved by the city council.

         Under the amended 10-year solid waste management plan, the city will embark on a 5-pronged approach to solve the city’s garbage disposal woes.

This includes setting up solid waste disposal facility within the Sto. Tomas Apugan City-owned property that will incorporate a waste-to-energy facility, temporary engineered sanitary landfill, operation of the two Environmental Recy    cling System (ERS) machines, an aerobic digester and  facility for medical waste.

The city’s amended 10-year solid waste management plan has not yet been officially reported in the city council for still unknown reasons until the same was overtaken by events during the election period.

The city government did not officially request the NSWMC to approve its amended 10-year solid waste management plan that was crafted by the city solid waste management board to conform with updated programs and projects of the local government in terms of addressing the city’s solid waste disposal concerns.

City General Services Officer Romeo D. Concio said it was the consultant of the city government that requested the NSWMC to comment and critique the amended 10-year solid waste management plan before finalizing the same but what happened was that the NSWMC already considered it as a compliance to the mandate of the provisions of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act or Republic Act (RA) 9003.      

“We never officially transmitted the matter to the NSWMC but what our consultant did was only to seek the comment and critic of the Commission on the amended 10-year solid waste management plan of the city before it will be submitted to the city council for approval,” Concio said.

He added the city government is in a better position with approval of the city’s amended 10-year solid waste management plan unlike what happened sometime in 2007 when the city council confirmed the crafted solid waste management plant but it was not approved by the NSWMC for reasons that were then outlined for the information of the local government.

The city general services officer appealed to the council not to take the approval of the NSWMC against the city’s amended solid waste management plan because it was not their intention to officially submit the matter to the Commission for approval but the consultant decided to solicit the comment and opinion of the regulating body on the plan for incorporation prior to the plan being submitted to the city council for approval.

The city government is eying the 139-hectare city-owned property in Sto. Tomas School Area and the Antamok open pit site of the Benguet Corporation in Itogon, Benguet as the remaining sites where it could put up its desired integrated solid waste disposal facility in order to effectively and efficiently address the city’s garbage disposal problems that is costing the city government around P70 million annually for the hauling of its residual waste to the engineered sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.