WHAT will happen to the garbage in Cebu City after the City Government’s contract with a private service provider tasked to dispose of it ended last Dec. 31?
The Department of Public Services (DPS) said garbage collection in the city is still normal even though the City has yet to find a final disposal site for the waste.
DPS Assistant Head John Paul Gelasque said the City stopped using the temporary transfer station of garbage at the South Road Properties (SRP).
While this developed, Gelasque said they might ask for another emergency procurement to hire a service provider that will haul the garbage this month to give them time to go through the normal bidding process and award the garbage disposal to another private service provider.
End of contract
Gelasque said the move to stop using the transfer station at the SRP came after City’s contract with Jomara Konstruct Corp., which was tasked to haul the deposited garbage at the SRP transfer station, ended last Dec. 31.
The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 7 earlier ordered the City to shut down the facility.
Gelasque said piles of garbage are still at the SRP since Jomara was only able to haul 70 percent of the total waste stored there due to some glitches, including the delay of the transport of their heavy equipment due to the typhoon, among others.
Gelasque assured that the remaining 30 percent will be hauled once a new service provider is hired.
Since Jan. 1, the DPS has been storing collected garbage at two private transfer stations in Barangay Inayawan.
Use of the two transfer stations is free for the first two days of the year, Gelasque said, since Jomara already paid them.
Awaiting decision
As to who and where the City will dump its garbage starting today, Gelasque said that will be up to Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Osmeña was expected to be back from his Japan trip yesterday. He is set to announce his plans on garbage management today.
Jomara handled the city’s garbage disposal in the last 10 days of December.
The City was forced to hire a private service provider to haul the garbage from the transfer station at the SRP after the EMB 7 issued a cease-and-desist order against the facility, which doesn’t have an environmental compliance certificate.
Last year, the Court of Appeals also ordered the City to permanently shut down the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill.
