TO REDUCE the budget on garbage disposal, the Cebu City Government’s Department of Public Services (DPS) wants to purchase 21 compactor trucks worth P232 million next year.
This year, the City spent around P420 million for garbage disposal. DPS projects that by buying new trucks, the City will only spend around P140 million for garbage disposal by 2020.
During the budget hearing for the proposed P8.1 billion 2019 annual budget of the City Wednesday, Nov. 7, DPS Assistant Department Head John Paul Gelasque said they suggested to Mayor Tomas Osmeña to purchase new compactor trucks instead of spending too much on garbage hauling fees.
The City has been sourcing out its garbage collection for almost two years already since the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill was closed.
“We constantly find ways to lessen the garbage disposal cost of the City and we realized along the way that it would be much better if we purchased our own trucks,” Gelasque said in an interview.
The City now owns 11 garbage trucks that are still running.
With the City having its own compactor trucks, it can directly throw the garbage in a private landfill, which will entail a lower cost, Gelasque said.
The DPS estimates to collect 700 tons of garbage a day.
The City is usually paying the private service providers around P1,200 for every ton of garbage they dispose of.
Apart from paying the fee for the hauling of garbage, the City is also renting trucks to augment the equipment needed for garbage collection.
Since the City has existing issues with Asian Energy Systems Corp., the operator of a private landfill in Consolacion, Gelasque said they will have to settle it first if they decide to dispose of the garbage there.
“So far, we are eyeing a private landfill in Consolacion owned by Asian Energy where we can throw the garbage or the one in Naga or Aloguinsan,” he said.
Asian Energy has filed a civil suit against Osmeña for breach of contract and asked the latter to pay close to P32 million for garbage disposal services incurred in the previous years.
Despite the proposal, the DPS still allocated P201 million for the hauling of garbage next year to cover the period when they will still bid out the purchase of compactor trucks.
Gelasque said the P201 million is enough to cover the first six months of 2019 for the private service provider to dispose of the garbage of the city.
“The bidding will take 28 days and it will take around five months as maximum before we can have the new trucks so that would be around June. While the trucks are still not there, we can let a private service provider do the hauling; that’s why we set aside something for the hauling,” Gelasque said.
By 2020, Gelasque said the budget of the City for garbage disposal is expected to be faster following the purchase of new compactor trucks next year. (RVC)