DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte expressed dismay on Monday over the performance of the City Environment and Natural Resource Office (Cenro) on garbage collection, prompting her to appoint an officer-in-charge (OIC) there temporarily.
Affirming the queries received on the collection of high piles of garbage, Duterte put Business Bureau chief lawyer Avaceña Agustin as the a concurrent OIC of Cenro for one month.
Current Cenro officer in charge Engineer Jocelyn Espina will return as assistant Cenro officer as this is her plantilla position.
"Almost one month na ko eh and nakita nako walay improvement (I'm almost one month in position and I saw that there is no improvement). They were told to shape up especially in terms of garbage collection. Lain tan-awon nga magkalat ang basura and lain tanawon nga magtambak ang basura nga wala nakolekta (It doesn't look good that garbage is scattered and it doesn't look good that the garbage is piling up and no one is collecting it)," Duterte said.
Duterte said she noticed that garbage was piling up as early as last month.
In fact, she has called Cenro several times and those were the only times garbage would be collected.
"Pero kini sa makita ra nako na mga areas so I could imagine sa mga areas nga dili nako makita (But these are just in the areas that I would pass by. I could only imagine the situation in the areas I am not able to check)," Duterte said in a conference.
Agustin will just be handling the Cenro temporarily as she is concurrent head of the Business Permits and Licensing Office.
Sun.Star received reports that garbage collection have slowed down in the past weeks such that these are uncollected in areas Agdao, Matina, Sasa, and Sandawa.
Duterte admits the Cenro has multiple problems.
"Actually naay kulang sa truck, sa tao, ug kakulangan sa sistema, administration sa mga tao. Wala koy exact figures. (We actually lack trucks and people, as to how many I have no exact figures. We also have a lack in the system and administration over our people)," Duterte said.
Duterte, in earlier statement, said the city is open to offering the garbage management under semi-private control.
The city has in fact already been accepting proposals from various groups interested in solid waste management.
"Ang amoang gigukod diri mukita pud ang city ug sa ilaha makanegosyo pud sila (What we are after is a proposal wherein the City Government earns and so does the private sector partner)," she added. (Jade C. Zaldivar)