THE construction of cell no. 2 at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa, Bacolod City is already 90 percent complete and the city’s garbage hauler IPM-Construction and Development Corporation (CDC) is expected to finish it soon.

This was stressed by Councilor Carlos Jose Lopez, chairperson of the City Council committee on environment, yesterday after the IPM-CDC earlier asked the City Council to extend the deadline of the completion of the construction of cell no.2 at the sanitary landfill from August 30 to November 22.

He said the IPM-CDC’s request was not yet approve because Councilor Dindo Ramos wants them to pay the liquidated damages and penalties.

“For me, sometimes in any projects or any business that you undertake, you cannot fully predict exactly what will happen, there’s also some areas for delay,” he added.

Lopez noted that the IPM-CDC’s request was endorsed again to the City Legal Office for a legal opinion.

In April, the City Council approved the request of the IPM-CDC to extend the deadline of the completion of the construction of cell no.2 at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa from April 30 to August 30, 2019.

On December 17, 2018, IPM-CDC president Isabelita Mercado sent a letter to Mayor Evelio Leonardia informing the city regarding the difficulty to start the excavation and requested to transfer the site for the construction of cell no.2 but still within the area of the sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa.

It stated in the contract of service between the city and IPM-CDC that the extension can be allowed provided it will pass through the Solid Waste Management Board, City Engineer’s Office (CEO) and environment office.

Once the cell no.2 will be completed, Lopez said the city government will also impose the waste segregation policy.

He said the city will also intensify its waste segregation campaign in the 61 barangays.

In 2018, the city government implemented the “no segregation, no collection” policy, but the program was a failure because residents are still not observing the proper ways of disposing.

Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Solid Waste Action Team (Swat), earlier said that most of the city residents are not complying with the waste segregation and that Bacolod is still zero in terms of compliance.

He said based on the report of the garbage hauler IPM-CDC majority of the households in various villages have no compliance.

“Supposedly, the IPM-CDC will not collect the unsegregated waste, but because of health issue they continued collecting the unsegregated wastes. We need the cooperation of everybody for this program,” he added.