The decision of the City Council to once more deny the appropriation and release of more than 25 Million pesos for the hauling out of our garbage in our city to the landfill in Tarlac is simply a manifestation of their belief that other ways and means are needed to solve our solid waste crisis.

The putrid smell notwithstanding, our councilors feel that they have done more than enough already by way of enactment of several laws that should have effectively resolved the problem on garbage.

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Their reluctance in appropriating more money just to haul out our garbage is their way of expressing their disgust at the apparent inability of the various concerned offices and agencies under the executive department to implement these laws.

To recall, several ordinances and resolutions were passed by the City Council relative to the establishment of an engineered sanitary landfill, the putting up of Materials Recovery Facilities in the 128 Barangays, the appropriation of money for the purchase of pieces of equipment and machineries that would process garbage, and directives that would somehow address and comply with the pertinent provisions of R.A. 9003.

In their minds, or to be more precise in the minds of councilors Fred Bagbagen and Rocky Thomas Balisong the City Council members have already done their part as legislators. They believe that before any further appropriation is to be made in connection with the hauling out of garbage to Tarlac, the executive department or more particularly those offices and agencies tasked to manage our solid waste should start implementing the provisions of these approved city ordinances and resolutions.

On the one hand I must admit that they have a point there. What would be the use of all these laws enacted and passed by the City Council if they would not be acted upon considering the urgency of the matter that is to resolve as quickly as possible the problem of garbage in the City.

To put it bluntly it would not be correct and justified for the city to forever be hauling out garbage to Tarlac at the expenses of the taxpayer's money.

Money that could be better used in some other worthy endeavor and if we will be reduced to hauling out our garbage time will come when we will not have enough money to spend for this undertaking.

Upon the other hand, I would also like to commiserate and sympathize with our barangay officials who are bearing the brunt of criticism from their constituents due to the continuing non-collection of garbage in their areas of jurisdiction.

They tried and failed to convince the City Council that what is sorely needed is the immediate, as in now, collection of garbage from the barangays. For our barangay officials what they seek is immediate relief from the onslaught of condemnation and disapproval coming from their constituents who have been hoarding their garbage for three weeks running.

To be fair about it, a compromise solution was adopted by the City Council and that is to haul out our garbage not to Capas, Tarlac as requested but back to the Irisan dumpsite.

Councilor Rocky Thomas Balisong in an interview Thursday revealed that there is still an available space at the Irisan dumpsite, which could be utilized for dumping our garbage. He explained that the city property where the Irisan dumpsite is located has an area of more than seven hectares of which about two hectares have been used for dumping our garbage. He said that he has received information that several hectares are still available as a temporary dumping site for our garbage while concerned agencies and offices undertake other approved measures to solve our garbage problem.

Again to my mind this is a stopgap solution considering that the city has already been hailed to court for alleged violations of R.A. 9003, and in fact Councilor Balisong himself has admitted that by continuing to dump garbage at the irisan dumpsite the city runs the risk of inviting future legal actions against it by those who feel that they are affected by the actions of the local government unit.

The decision has been made and although it was a bitter choice of the lesser evil the city must grab this opportunity if only to clear our sidewalks and barangays of unsightly garbage.

Now that the City Council has once more allowed the hauling and dumping of garbage at the Irisan dumpsite the concerned offices particularly the Cemo headed by Ms. Cordelia Lacsamana should already inform and direct the barangays regarding the collection of garbage since this requires prior notification and scheduling as has earlier been done.

Of course we also presume that Ms. Lacsamana has already directed her personnel to make ready the city dump trucks needed for the collection and hauling.

Unfortunately as of this writing we have yet to observe our city owned dump trucks collecting and hauling out garbage from the barangays. Let us wait and see.