DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 24 Feb) – The city council passed on third reading Tuesday Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1) amounting to P600 million to fund new equipment for the upgrade of the city’s solid waste management program.
The amount would fund the purchase and acquisition of 22 units of garbage compactors worth around P364,135,000 and 13,566 mobile garbage bins worth P235,860,000.
The item received 16 affirmative votes and one negative vote from Councilor Elias Lopez, who said the city had not yet learned its lesson regarding buying mobile garbage bins.
Three out of the 20 voting councilors were out during the proceeding.
“When we first bought garbage bins in the past, we were assured that the items would last for a long time,” Lopez said during Tuesday’s regular session at the Sangguniang Panlungsod. “Now we are buying again.”
Eliza Madrazo, City Environment and Natural Resources Office head, outlined last week the P600-million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines before councilors during the deliberation of the supplemental budget 1 which appropriates the amount exclusively for the project.
The city government will be buying nine 16-cubic meter garbage compactors and three 19-cubic meter garbage compactors.
SB1 will also fund the repair of 10 of the city’s old garbage compactors.
A total of 13,564 mobile garbage bins will also be procured by the city, at 240-, 360-, and 660-liter capacities.
Some 1,800 garbage bins will be reserved for disaster garbage, special events, and coastal and street cleanup activities.
In 2006, the city acquired 10 9-cubic-meter capacity garbage compactor trucks, 6,900 units of 240-liter mobile garbage bins and 13,350 units of 120-liter two-wheeled garbage bins.
The next year, the city bought a total of 9,584 units of mobile garbage bins to cover barangays outside the poblacion area.
In 2009, meanwhile, the city bought 10 garbage compactors.
According to Madrazo, the CENRO collects around 480 to 500 tons of residual waste per day, with a slight increase during special events such as the Christmas holidays, festival season, or city events.
Last week, finance committee chair Danilo Dayanghirang asked the department to outline the items for deliberation by the city council.
The council approved on second reading the release of SB1 during the regular session last week.
The upgrade of waste management facilities aims to comply with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act and the Davao City Ecological Solid Waste Management Ordinance for the collection, transport and handling of solid waste, according to Madrazo.
Last year, the city was named as an Environmentally Sustainable City in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), being given a Clean Land award under the Highly Urbanized City category.