Benguet folk hit Baguio on ‘garbage avalanche’

TUBA, Benguet – For the nth time this year, tons of garbage from the Irisan open dumpsite of Baguio City cascaded last week to several villages here caused by continuous heavy rains brought by typhoon "Karen."

Despite the announced closure of the Irisan dumpsite, the Baguio City government is still using it as a temporary staging area for the hauling of its 280 tons of daily garbage to a sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac by private tuckers.

Ironically, the garbage that washed down to Barangays Tadiangan and Nangalisan has caused irritants among the residents and even people living near the dumpsite in Irisan.

And for the nth time, affected communities criticized the city government for insisting on the use of the closed dumpsite as a temporary staging area.

The residents said that City Hall continues using the dump despite proof that it is overloaded.
They said this could cause more serious headaches to the city officials in the event of a garbage disaster similar to what happened in Payatas, Quezon City a few years ago.

Before the residents set up a human barricade at the area to prevent use of the dumpsite, there were already cracks in the retaining wall of the facility.

These were clear indications that it could no longer handle the weight of the tons and tons of garbage being dumped in the 5.2-hectare property.

Tuba and Baguio residents affected by the "garbalanche" have complained of the stench coming from the garbage littered in their village.

The residents aired fears of illnesses that might come as a result of the unsanitary condition in their village. They asked City Hall to adopt emergency measures aimed at checking the foul odor and stop the flow of the garbage to the low areas, particularly Tadiangan and Nangalisan.

Early this year, the city government took three days to clear the roads and communities below the dumpsite of the tons of garbage that cascaded from the Irisan dumpsite. This was also caused by heavy rains that hit the city.

Aside from the mountains of garbage at the dumpsite, the city is also faced by the problem of how to collect the tons of wastes that continue to pile up on the streets due to the absence of a permanent dumping facility.

This, as the animosity among city officials over the garbage crisis here has worsened and affected not only the residents but tourists, and businessmen.

The feud loomed after a councilor asked that the city council investigate whatever deal entered into between the Office of the City Mayor and a garbage-hauling company.

Metro Waste, the hauling company, was commissioned by the mayor’s office to transport garbage from the city to a sanitary landfill in Tarlac.

Last July 14, the residents of the decommissioned Irisan dumps site near Tuba town, Benguet barricaded the dump. The mass action plunged City Hall into a quandary as the city has no place to dump garbage.

As a remedial measure, the mayor’s office entered into a hauling contract with Metro Waste.
Councilor Richard Cariño urged last week the city council to investigate the Metro Waste deal.

He said that if it is found out that the city government has no valid contract with the company, Metro Waste would not be paid for its services rendered for the period from July 24 to 31, 2008.
Last Aug. 4 during a regular council session, Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. apologized to the city council for his action of forging a contract for the emergency hauling of garbage.

Bautista said he is taking the full responsibility and is willing to go to jail for his action.

But the mayor’s remark did not change stand of some of the council members. Councilor Cariño, during a media briefing, said the city council had not seen any memorandum of agreement entered into between the city government and Metro Waste for the hauling of garbage.

Cariño also said that there was no bidding conducted for the services of the hauling company and that no fund was allocated for the purpose.

"No contract may be entered into by the city’s chief executive in behalf of the local government unit without prior consultation with the council," the councilor said, quoting Section 22 of the Local Government Code.

Cariño said a letter sent by Metro Waste to the mayor’s office stated that P450 will be paid by the city per ton of garbage as "tipping fee."

But Cariño said that when the mayor’s office requested the City Council to allocate R30.3 million as payment for Metro Waste, the tipping fee was increased to P800 per ton.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bautista said he will create a task force that will study various offers and decide on the final site of a planned sanitary landfill for Baguio City.

City Administrator Peter Fianza, whom Bautista tasked to oversee the garbage management concerns, announced that the mayor will create a body that is expected to decide on timetable for the selection process starting with the setting of a cutoff date for the receipt of offers for possible sites.

Fianza said the task force would assess and investigate all the sites being offered, make the selection based on the guidelines and a point system to set by the Solid Waste Management Board.

The results of the selection will be submitted to the city council for action.