Urban poor hit Baguio mayor’s directive

2 MIN READ

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The city-wide alliance of urban poor said that the administrative order of Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan on collection of garbage fees is actually a form of double taxation which will be an additional burden especially to the poor families.

“Agbaybayad tayo metten kadagiti buwis” (We are already paying taxes) said Geraldine Cacho of the Organisasyon dagiti Nakukurapay nga Umili Ti Siyudad (Ornus).

According to Cacho, it is the responsibility of the city government as part of the social services being funded by the peoples’ tax to look for a better way to address the city garbage problem instead of simple plans that make the people suffer added and unnecessary expenses.

She said that it seems that real scrutiny and study was missing before the issuance of such order was made.

Cacho said the move is an additional extraction of funds, and it is most possible that Baguio citizens instead of submitting their waste for proper disposal would rather resort to burning their garbage to save from having to pay the added fees. And that she said, will be dangerous both to the health of the people and to the environment because of the toxic fumes and smoke from the burning.

Domogan claims that his AO will be able to streamline the collection of garbage fees helping the barangays in generating income to support their barangay solid waste management programs (SWMP).

He said that allowing barangay-based collection of garbage fees will help the barangays carry out their SWMP more efficiently in the City.

The city, as stated in mayor’s AO is aggressively implementing its SWMP to comply with Republic Act 9003 or the National Solid Waste management Act whereas the city’s 10 year eco-Solid Waste Management Plan (ESWMP) emphasizes the role of the Barangays consistent with section six of ule VI of RA 9003 mandating the creation of Barangay Solid Waste Management Committees and defining their functions and Responsibilities.

Whereas the scaling down of the City’s ESWMP to the Barangay level requires resources for the implementation, monitoring and other related activities to ensure compliance.

The said collection will be subjected to a sharing scheme of 70-30% between the city government and the barangays. Barangays with high collection accumulated will receive additional incentives.

A barangay councilman who requested anonimity expressed pessimism saying that they have to endure the reactions from their constituents. He said that the AO should be better if there will be public consultations regarding the collection of fees.

He said that they will collect garbage fees from every household in their respective barangays noting that a household refers to a core family that includes the parents, minor and unmarried children and limited extension to house help and grandparents who are dependent on the household head.

The barangay kagawad added that married children living in the same house will be considered as another household thereby will be charged separately.

Cacho said this will be difficult to poor families whose priority in looking for money is to buy food for every people in their house. She explained that even if there are married children living in the house of their parents and shall be considered a separate household, all of them are burdened by the same needs.

Precisely the reason they share the same household – to save on expenses and have enough to buy food and not to pay for garbage,” she opined. # nordis.net