ATTY. ELIAS L. ESPINOZA:

Now that the Cebu City Government has approved and released P4,000 allowance it owed its garbage loaders, we can hope that garbage collection would be on schedule, instead of delayed by a week or so. But lawyer-columnist Elias L. Espinoza believes there’s a bigger question, Without a sanitary landfill and with some street corners being treated as dump sites by some callous residents, what has become of the Queen City of the South? Another city in the south, Naga, can provide an inspiration or a challenge. It’s the first local government unit in Cebu to have approved a 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan.

After the Cebu City Government approved and released the P4,000 allowance for garbage loaders, we should now expect on schedule and faster collection of garbage at the barangay level. Currently, it takes a week or so before household garbage is collected.

Pamocor, the new contractor for garbage collection, faces a huge problem in disposing of daily the city’s tons of garbage because Cebu City does not have a landfill.

The problem with Cebu City is that the elected officials do not have a sense of purpose. Everyone has his/her personal or political interests.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña bullied the barangay officials who did not support him in the last elections. Conversely, opposition councilors oppose projects beneficial to the city but which they suspect the city mayor may have vested interest on.

Never mind if the city’s services, like garbage collection and construction of roads, are below par as long as these elected officials appear in the news and look good to their rah-rah boys.

The obsessive mayor even cut the allowances for barangay tanods and garbage loaders on mere suspicion that they were lazy or using illegal drugs. I agree that lazy government workers should be disciplined but not to the extent of prejudicing public service.

I think Cebu City officials don’t find urgent the need for a sanitary landfill even if some city street corners have become dump sites of callous residents. What has become of our Queen City of the South?

Cebu City officials should be ashamed because of what the City of Naga achieved on the aspect of solid waste management. It was the first local government unit in Cebu to have an approved 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan.

As I wrote in my previous column, Mayor Val Chiong used public private partnership (PPP) to attain his plan. The city contracted FDRCon, Inc. sometime in 2010 under a 25-year agreement for the collection and disposal of its garbage.

In 2008, FDRCon, Inc. established its materials recovery facility (MRF) in Pangdan. Eight years later, FDRCon, under a new company FDR-IRRM, established Cebu’s first waste-to-energy biogas plant that can generate power of 360 KVA.

Why can’t the Cebu City officials set aside their political or personal differences and put their minds together in putting up a sanitary landfill and waste-to-energy plant? It’s not dishonorable to copy the Naga City model. The management of FDR-IRRM could perhaps share their technology, if requested.