City Muscles Strict Garbage Segregation

To prove that the Cebu City government is really serious in implementing waste segregation, its environmental officers apprehended 182 drivers of garbage trucks who transported unsegregated garbage to a private landfill in Barangay Polog, Consolacion and in Barangay Inayawan on Saturday and Sunday.

Grace Luardo, head of the Cebu City Environment Sanitation and Enforcement Team (CESET), said citation tickets were issued to all apprehended garbage truck drivers, 34 of them are assigned with the Department of Public Services (DPS), while the rest are drivers of barangay garbage trucks.

Luardo said two of her personnel, Jose Jumaoas and Joel Regodo, were allegedly threatened by DPS driver Florante Ardenio after the two CESET personnel apprehended him and was issued citation ticket.

“Giingnan ang duha nako ka tawo nga naa ra ba mo sa bukid basin og ipalubong ta mo, bisan og ipaabot pa na ninyo sa inyong mayor,” Luardo said, quoting the statement of both Jumaoas and Regodo.

Luardo informed Mayor Michael Rama about the threat and the DPS driver has been ordered already to report to the mayor’s office this morning.

“Dili na maayo nga mag-inisog sila kon tinuod nga trabaho ang ilang tuyo,” Rama said.

Rama had already announced last month that the city would strictly implement the provision of Republic Act 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, by not collecting unsegregated garbage from the source.

But Luardo said since last Saturday, only seven garbage trucks hauled segregated wastes to the landfill and these are barangay garbage trucks.

The law provides that those government officials who failed to implement the provisions of Republic Act 9003 will be charged in court.

Since the city had started enforcing the “no segregation, no collection” of garbage policy a few years ago, close to 10,000 individuals had already been apprehended, some of them had been sued before the court while others paid P500 for the amicable settlement for each violation.

Lawyer Jade Ponce, presiding officer of the Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) said some of the violators opt to pay the P500 compromise fine, while others just rendered community service.

The city government had stopped dumping garbage at the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, but only use the facility as transfer station where the small garbage trucks transferred their wastes to the huge DPS trucks to transport them to the private landfill in Barangay Polog, Consolacion.

The city is paying P700 for every ton of garbage that will be transported to that private landfill.

The city’s policy is that during Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays and Sundays the garbage trucks will collect the biodegradable wastes while the non-biodegradable wastes shall be collected during Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays.

The law requires households and commercial establishments to separate or segregate the biodegradable wastes from recyclable or reusable items.

For his part, Tisa Barangay Captain Philip Zafra, who sits as ex-officio member of the City Council as president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), said he wants the law to be be strictly implemented.

“Malooy unta ta sa mga barangay pero kanus-a pa man ta mag-inistrikto aron ang mga barangay mopatuman ‘sab sa balaod ngadto sa ilang mga mulopyo?” said Zafra.