BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan underscored the temporary hauling of the city’s residual waste to the Capas sanitary landfill remains the doable and best option in getting rid of a potential garbage crisis while the city is working out long-term solutions to the decade-old garbage problem.
The local chief executive pointed out his administration was able to lower the excessive hauling cost from the previous P3,200 per ton to only a little over P1,400 per ton to this date because of the local government’s unrelenting and uncompromising effort to locate haulers who could provide the lest cost but efficient service in disposing the city’s residual waste to an accredited sanitary landfill.
“It will be far more expensive if it will be the local government that will do the hauling of garbage at source and then haul it to the Capas landfill. It is still best that we have qualified haulers who have waste transfer stations to haul the city’s residual waste to the accredited landfill,” Domogan stressed.
If it will be the local government that will do the hauling, he admitted that the city’s existing garbage trucks will not be enough to do the hauling of waste at source and the hauling of garbage to the accredited landfill, thus, the need for the city to purchase at least 15 more garbage trucks to be added to its existing serviceable trucks so that there will be some trucks that will be devoted for the hauling of waste outside the city.
According to him, the local government will have to also invest in the hiring of additional personnel to work on the trucks that will be purchased which will take some time because of the requirements in the hiring of personnel aggravated by the prescribed limit of 45 percent devoted for personal services enshrined in the provisions of the Local government code of the Philippines.
Currently, the city is hauling out some 155 tons of residual waste from the hauler’s waste transfer station to the Capas sanitary landfill.
He explained the local government cannot simply relax in dealing with the increasing volume of waste generated by the residents and visitors, thus, it made as a requirement in the selection of the hauler the existence of its waste transfer station accredited by the environment and natural resources department where the hauled waste from the barangays will be segregated to ascertain the residual waste that will be hauled out of the city.
Domogan said competition among haulers is encouraged on who can provide the city with the advantageous offer but during the bidding process, it is M.A. Camilo freight services that always comes out as the qualified hauler because of the presence of its registered and accredited waste transfer station which is now being questioned by some residents in the area.
He asserted any interested hauler wanting to dislodge the existing hauler can participate in future bidding of the hauling services provided that, the sole proprietor or the company has an established waste transfer station that is accredited by the environment department to minimize the burden of having to look for one transfer station in the case of the city.
By Dexter A. See
