Emergency what?

Help me understand here.

Uncollected garbage has become a perennial problem in Cebu City. No doubt about that. All you have to do is look at the mounds of trash that can be found in some neighborhood corner. Or take a whiff of the air. And you know that the situation has become pervasive.

I have already dedicated several columns to the matter in the last four years, hoping the local government unit would address it. Mind you, I’ve tried to be patient. I know that the Cebu City Government has been dumping the garbage collected in the city in the northern town of Consolacion after the landfill in Inayawan was closed. I also know that some of the City’s trucks used to collect garbage are either under repair or, worse, unserviceable. There was a time when barangays pulled their own weight but most of their garbage trucks have gone the same way as the City’s. Either broken or rusting.

So I’ve learned early on that there was no point in beating my head against the wall because, on this issue, I’d just end up with a headache.

That’s why I sit, flies the size of raisins buzzing around me while I try to ignore the smell of rotting refuse, and wait for the bell to ring to announce the arrival of the garbage haulers.

I’m vaguely aware of what City Hall has been doing to address the problem. I know that it has been hiring a service provider to handle the city’s garbage disposal.

Usually, the contract undergoes a public bidding. I say “usually” because that will not be the case next month.

All of a sudden, the City announced that it would have to resort to an emergency procurement because—and get this—it’s pressed for time.

According to Department of Public Services Assistant Head John Paul Gelasque, the contract of the current service provider will expire on July 27. If the City conducts a normal bidding, that will take around a month. Hence, the City will canvass three suppliers, and whoever submits the lowest price proposal will get the contract.

Sounds peachy, right? But it only left me scratching my head.

It’s not like the garbage problem hasn’t been under City’s nose the whole time. Because it has. The issue has been making waves on the newspapers, the radio and on TV. And yet, the City acted as if the contract deadline just snuck up on it, forcing it to chuck out normal procedure out of the window.

The City cited a provision of Republic Act 9184, or the Government Procurement Act, which allows emergency procurement under several cases, such as “in case of imminent danger to life or property during a state of calamity or when time is of the essence arising from man-made or natural calamities, or the other causes where immediate action is necessary to prevent damage to or loss of public utilities.”

Somehow, Ronald Malacora, chairman of the bids and awards committee, was coy in pointing out that the City is not in a state of emergency due to a calamity, but he said “there is an immediate need to hire a service provider to avoid problems that may arise due to uncollected garbage.”

Hmm. I still think the whole thing stinks.

All of a sudden, the City announced that it would have to resort to an emergency procurement