THE three weeks pile-up of garbage collected in only six barangays in Baguio City on Friday filled up the Irisan transfer station and even reached the site's entrance.

Colleene Lacsamana, officer-in-charge of the City Environment and Parks Management Office (Cepmo), reported during the City Council's caucus Friday afternoon that 100 truckloads weighing 152 tons of trash have so far been hauled out from the transfer station.

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Budget used to haul came from the P2.1 million earlier appropriated for the hauling of piled garbage.

Lacsamana said half of the amount has already been spent. She informed members of the City Council that Cepmo personnel are encountering problems on collection.

She said waste collectors had to collect until the wee hours because not only backlog of trash in various barangays are to be collected but also those fresh batches of trash from various households.

Lacsamana appealed to barangay officials to inform their constituents not to bring out their trash, until they have collected all of the piled-up garbage.

Meanwhile, barangay officials of Baguio are bent on holding a rally on Monday.

Association of Barangay Councils president Joel Alangsab said barangay officials are hard up in containing garbage in their respective barangays.

"Every household could not keep their garbage forever. It has to be collected," Alangsab said, echoing the plea of village officials for the immediate resumption of collection.

The City Council is also set to decide on whether it will continue allocating further money for the costly transfer of the city trash to Capas, Tarlac.

Meantime, Lacsamana confirmed the dumpsite's use could be extended for another three to four months.

She said the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) already asked the city to submit a stability assessment report, which would include mitigating measures that would be done if the agency allows extension of use.

The assessment report will contain recommendations of the project engineer.

Quoting the assessment done by the project engineer, Lacsamana said the bottom part of the dump could still accommodate trash, but this has to be residual waste only.

She said mixed waste could not be dumped there anew to avoid leacheate from contaminating the ground.

The Cepmo is also awaiting the P8-million assistance promised by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last August which was meant to complete materials recovery facilities in various barangay clusters.

Lacsamana said there is a prescribed format for fund requests by the DENR, which she already requested to jumpstart the release of needed funds.

The bioreactor machine donated by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will be arriving within the week, she added.

Lacsamana said the machine will be tested at City Hall first before additional machines are delivered.

She said one barangay, which was supposed to be a beneficiary of the machine, backed out because the machine occupies a large space and requires manual operation before it functions.