A CEBU City councilor wants the City Government to focus on the rehabilitation of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill instead of apportioning one hectare inside the facility for a transfer station.
The establishment of a transfer station is covered by a proposed ordinance authored by Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr.
Councilor Joel Garganera, head of the City Council’s committee on environment, however, said he will be filing a motion before the Court of Appeals (CA) urging the City to fast-track the closure of the landfill.
“I will be filing my motion in due time. The City is told to report on a monthly basis as to its post-closure activity (for the landfill), but up to now, it has not. An operation in the landfill is an affront to the CA’s decision,” he said.
Last year, the CA granted the petition for writ of kalikasan that Garganera filed.
Gabuya, however, said the that transfer station does not run counter to the appellate court’s order.
Should his draft measure be passed, he said an infrastructure will be built in the landfill where trash will no longer have to be deposited on the lot, but directly transferred from truck-to-truck.
While the committee on laws found the measure to be tantamount to reopening the landfill, the City Legal Office favored the passage of Gabuya’s proposed ordinance.
“According to EMB (Environmental Management Bureau), they have no record of an established transfer station in Cebu. The City might as well establish one that it can use. It would be very difficult to find a more suitable transfer station than the Inayawan landfill,” they said.
