By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Members of the City Council hit one of the heads of the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) with questions over the controversial hauling of garbage that contiously hounds the residents of Baguio.

In the City Council’s regular session on Monday, some councilors expressed that they have the feeling that the CEPMO do not like to use the seven garbage trucks purchased at Subic in Pampanga on July as Engineer Ruben Cervantes of the Technical Working Group asked for another allocation for the hiring of additional trucks from private firms.

Cervantes earlier wrote the council asking if they should stop the hauling of garbage if there are no other ways as only Flores Construction Company and the contract to haul between the city and Chanbonfin cosntruction expired last July 31 Only four out of the eight dump trucks of the city are operating. Cervantes said the other trucks are on preventive maintenance. Cervantes said they have to undergo change oil and need to have tire change.

He said that the Irisan Transfer Station has already accumulated large volume of garbage since the first week of August.

Cervantes told the council that the remaining four of the city’s dump trucks are currently under preventive maintainance procedures. He also said they cannot use the seven Giga trucks as they are still in green plates. They are still waiting for the issuance of the redplates and the processing of the insurance of the trucks by the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) and the registration in the Land Transportation Office.

But Councilor Erdolfo Balajadia slammed Cervantes of not anticipating the preventive maintenance thus affecting the regular hauling of garbage. Cervantes said they are still waiting for the purchasing of materials needed for the maintenance of the trucks.
Councilor Antonio Tabora questioned Cervantes how regular their preventive maintenance. Tabora said the maintenance took much of the time and there’s a problem of attitude in scheduling the said maintenance at the same schedules of garbage collection.

Meanwhile, Councilor Rocky Balisong reminded Cervantes the strong stance of the council against the hiring of private entities to haul the city’s garbage. Balisong added that had the CEPMO maximized the possibilities of immediate processing of the papers of the seven trucks right after their delivery on July, the garbage problem should have been avoided.

Balisong said Cervantes in his letter is like threatening the councilors over the garbage problem. People present in the session hall giggled in near laughter after Cervantes said that he have no intention of threatening as he wrote in the last part of his letter that he seeks advice from the council.

Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) and councilor Joel Alangsab told Cervantes to consider the situation of barangay officials before making a statement of stopping the collection of garbage. “Sana isipin mo kung gaano kahirap ang pagbabantay ng mga opisyales ng mga barangay tuwing skedyul ng pagbabasura sa erya nila. Sila ang nasasalang kung may problema sa basura ng kani-kanilang barangay kaya huwag mong sabihin na itigil ang pangongolekta ng basura,” (You should think first the difficulties of the barangay officials in monitoring every scheduled garbage dumping in their areas. They are the ones who are in hot seats if there are problems of garbage so do not speak of stopping the collection of garbage) Alangsab told Cervantes.

Councilor Nicasio Palaganas said that the city is always facing the garbage problem because of the improper handling of the problem. Palaganas criticized the reason of changing the oil of the trucks therefore delaying the regular garbage collection. He noticed the problems in the maintenance and operation of the trucks. Palaganas said that instead of changing the oil, why not change the people in chrage of the garbage collection. # nordis.net