THE Baguio City Council has allotted P92 million for garbage this year.
Eugene Buyucan, officer-in-charge of the City General Services Office, defended the solid waste management program budget explaining the cost includes hauling of the city’s residual waste, purchase of trucks as information and education campaign set for this year to advocate segregation at source.
Buyucan, with city budget officer Letty Clemente faced the City Council Monday afternoon for the approval of the more than P2 billion city budget.
The GSO official said the deal to haul to Urdaneta, Pangasinan is set to be approved which will be beneficial to the city instead of the present deal in Capas, Tarlac saving at least P17 million.
At least 162 tons of residual waste are produced by the city daily which is collected and hauled with a cost of P935.50 per ton and a tipping fee of P550.
Buyucan said the transfer to the Urdaneta site will have to go through the process of government but remains hopeful for its approval.
The existing hauler, MA Camilo Trucking and Freight Services contract has expired December, according to Buyucan, and the city is set to open the item for bidding anew.
Camilo has signified its intent to continue the contract, but has been having problems with the staging area for garbage which has been opposed by residents in both areas he has sought to set up.
The city bided out the hauling of its residual waste in 2015 which resulted to the disqualification of an interested bidder because his identified transfer station in barangay Camp 7 was not issued the required environmental compliance certificate and the hauling contract was awarded to the existing hauler.
Hauling started after the Irisan dumpsite was phased out and due to the lack of sites to accommodate an engineered sanitary land fill. Hauling, though expensive, has been identified by the Environment and Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as an acceptable means of disposal for areas which can afford the service and is still without an ESL.
Haulers must be able to satisfy the terms of reference wherein the contractor must have a staging area that must have passed the standards of the host communities and the environment department.