CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants the justices of the Court of Appeals (CA) to visit the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill so they can personally assess the facility.
This, as the City Government is set to lease five dump trucks, which will be used to collect garbage in the city.
In his news conference yesterday, Osmeña disclosed some of his plans on how to effectively address the garbage concerns of the city.
“I will invite the justices to make an inspection at the landfill. They have to see it for themselves,” Osmeña said.
His statement came after the CA’s 19th Division held the first hearing for the petition for a Writ of Kalikasan with prayer for issuance of a Temporary Environmental Protection Order that Councilor Joel Garganera filed against the mayor and two environmental agency officials over the operation of the landfill.
No to Consolacion
The mayor remains firm on his stand that the City can still use the landfill for two years.
The CA justices urged the contesting parties in the petition seeking to close the landfill to come up with a “win-win solution.”
It was suggested during the hearing last Wednesday that the City could dump it waste again at the private dumping site in Consolacion town, as a quicker solution to the issue.
However, Osmeña said the City does not have enough trucks that can go there.
Aside from that, the tipping fees were “too much.”
The Consolacion landfill collected P700 for every ton of garbage thrown by the City.
The City disposes of 300 to 500 tons of waste daily.
Osmeña said he will attend the next CA hearing on Oct. 24 to answer questions.
As to the leasing of dump trucks, Osmeña said he is inviting private companies to participate in the City’s plan to rent vehicles to help with garbage collection.
Osmeña said the outsourcing of dump trucks is still experimental but he is willing to implement it if it proves to be effective.
According to the bidding data sheet, the City will rent the trucks for 122 days.
Cost
City Hall is willing to pay P14.6 million for 24 hours every day collecting garbage in different parts of the city.
As proposed, each truck will be rented for P1,000 per hour or P120,000 per day for five trucks.
As stated in the terms, Osmeña said the winning bidder will pay for the driver and the maintenance of the trucks while the City is willing to provide the fuel.
The mayor said he discovered that many of the garbage trucks have problems that was why he proposed renting dump trucks.
Outsourcing the garbage collection, Osmeña said, is beneficial to the City since it won’t have to hire additional manpower and spend for the purchase of parts for defective trucks.
