ARN Central Waste Management Inc., the operator of the private landfill in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City, is willing to follow the mandate of the Cebu City Government after its P65-million contract was “cancelled.”

However, ARN president and executive director Sherwin Santos clarified there is no formal cancellation of the contract yet.

City Administrator Floro Casas, on July 8, 2019, said the contract had not been officially canceled but was headed in that direction.

For their part, Santos said they are waiting for further instructions from the City.

“Our company is fully supportive of Cebu’s mandate, and we will continue to do so knowing full well that City Hall has the best interest of the entire city in mind,” Santos told SunStar Cebu.

He said if the contract will officially be cancelled, the City will no longer dump its garbage in the private landfill.

However, they may still receive a portion of the volume of garbage from the City since it is possible that some of the haulers the City will hire will still use their facility.

For now, Santos said, they will continue their operations to accommodate haulers while waiting for the City’s decision.

Forty haulers dump garbage in the Binaliw facility.

Cebu City has eight registered private haulers, based on records of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, but only Pinoy Basurero Corp. and Jomara Konstruckt Inc. dispose of the garbage they collect there, as confirmed by Santos.

But Santos said Jomara has been inactive recently while the other haulers that are registered have stopped dumping their garbage in the landfill.

Santos said it will be up to the local government units (LGUs) to decide whether they will continue to dispose of their garbage in the landfill.

Santos said that since ARN started operating in May following the closure of the Consolacion landfill in the same month, the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Compostela town have been dumping their garbage in the facility.

Liloan, in an official statement sent to SunStar Cebu by Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office head Ronald Tabuñag, clarified that the northern town has never disposed of its garbage in the Binaliw landfill.

“On the position of (Cebu City) Mayor Edgardo Labella of disallowing the dumping of waste by Liloan at the Binaliw dumpsite, the records of the Municipality of Liloan would show that it (Liloan) has never dumped any waste at the Binaliw dumpsite in Cebu City,” the statement read.

Labella earlier said the city should not be a recipient of the garbage of other LGUs.

Santos said their facility currently receives 380 to 450 tons of municipal solid waste daily.

Meanwhile, the material recovery facility of ARN, which is required to be completed within 100 days starting June 7, 2019, is now 70 percent complete.

Santos said it is expected to be completed in 60 to 70 days, as they are working on it 24/7.

Santos said they had already submitted all the necessary documents to the Environmental Management Bureau. (JJL)