Baguio officials finalize executive-legislative agenda

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – City officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan have finalized the Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA) that will chart the city’s developmental direction for 2020-2022.

Magalong, during the flag-raising rites Aug. 5 expressed elation over the ELA output which he said elevated his original 10-point executive agenda into what is now the 15-point collective core agenda of the city government covering various thrusts.

The agenda now include the thrusts for an efficient disaster management, empowered barangay governance, expanding social services and entrepreneurial promotions, poverty reduction and resolution of issues involving ancestral lands and claims. 

The original ten were speeding up government action, revitalizing the environment, innovating peace and order condition, aggressive traffic management, responsive education program, empowering the youth, expanding health and social services, responsible tourism, enlivened culture, arts, crafts and heritage and market modernization.

The mayor extolled the current excellent relations between the executive and legislative branches of the local government which he said was instrumental in making the ELA strategic planning held last July 31-Aug. 1 in Clark, Pampanga  a very fruitful one.

“I was overwhelmed by their (city council) support and with all sincerity I would say that I can’t ask for more because every time I raise some issues or ideas with them they are all very receptive and in the same manner I want to express my support to them and this I say without any deception or pretension.  What you see is what you get,” he told the council members. 

Before the final session in Clark, heads of the different city departments and divisions underwent a series of pre-ELA presentations and workshops facilitated by City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Pena where departmental goals and plans of actions for the next three years were identified based on institutional, public order and safety, social, environment, and infrastructure sectors.

The workshops generated a total of 179 executive concerns that require legislative actions.

During the ELA workshop, the city council committed support to the concerns presented by the executives and promised to act favorably on them when presented.

In its own legislative agenda, the august body resolved to pursue measures that deal on the improvement of water supply, traffic flow, health services, school facilities and policies, youth welfare, creative cities promotions, infrastructure, city market, environmental policies and entrepreneurship among others. 

 All in all, the ELA workshop achieved its purpose of aligning the executive agenda with those of the legislative body for a unified direction, the mayor said.

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Mayor Magalong urged residents and business owners in the city to adapt their own backyard composting methods and technologies to lessen the city’s biodegradable waste production.

The mayor said it is high time to instill the practice of composting their biodegradable wastes among residents to help effectively and efficiently address the solid waste management problem of the city.

He said the city has been doing its best to maximize the operation of the Environmental Recycling System (ERS) machines stationed at the former dumpsite at Irisan to process the compostable wastes but residents and businessmen should also do their part in easing the city’s waste burden.

The city produces 40-50 tons of biodegradable wastes per day and only 75 percent of these are being processed by the ERS.

In a meeting with the department heads last Aug. 7, the mayor urged departments concerned to prepare business owners along Session Road for the new composting requirement which the city will impose soon. 

“Every business especially restaurants should have their own composting facility,” the mayor said as he tasked the General Services Office to disseminate information on simple composting methods that can be employed by the businessmen.

In a press briefing Aug. 2, the mayor said the practice of composting of biodegradable wastes in the homes of residents is important because it will help in reducing the volume of biodegradable wastes being brought by people to the collection points in the city’s barangays that will be hauled by the garbage collectors.

The local chief executive admitted that he also practices composting in his residence and the two drums he uses in composting the biodegradable waste being generated in their house are not even filled up in a month or two.

According to him, residents should erase the impression that composting is unsanitary because the same is not true based on his actual experience.

Moreso, it does not need much space contrary to what others believe.

GSO Officer Eugene Buyucan said that apart from waste segregation, home and backyard composting is the obligation of residents under the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 to help the concerned government agencies and local governments address the garbage disposal concerns in their areas of jurisdiction.

He urged residents to practice composting as well as urban gardening in their homes because it is also one strategy that is vital in helping reduce the volume of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes and is also beneficial for the homes.

He said a simple composting method would only require any container, big or medium-sized and can be plastic, wood or cement where biodegradable wastes can be stored.

Just cover the refuse with small amount of soil for drying and repeat the process.  They compost can be used in one to two months for their backyard garden.

Other methods such as the use of African night crawlers can also be employed.

Buyucan said they will coordinate with the Dept. of Agriculture and Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources for the conduct of technical trainings on composting among residents. 

Aside from collecting some 40 to 50 tons of biodegradable waste from the different collection points in the city’s barangays, the local government is also collecting some 170 to 180 tons of non-biodegradable waste from the collection points in the barangays daily.

At present, the local government is hauling the generated residual waste out of the city with the sanitary landfill of Urdaneta City, Pangsinan as the recipient of the garbage being brought to the facility.

However, the city general services officer claimed that the volume of garbage being generated in the city significantly increases during peak tourism months when there is a huge influx of visitors wanting to spend a well-deserved break in the country’s undisputed Summer Capital which has its natural air conditioning being preferred by people from the lowlands as a tourism destination. – With a report from Dexter A. See