OPPOSITION DADS: SHOW REHAB PLAN

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera asks the executive department has spent at least P52.4 million to rehabilitatethe Inayawan landfill without any study.

It has been nearly two years since the Court of Appeals ordered the permanent closure of the Inayawan landfill in Cebu City.

How is the implementation of the facility’s post-closure rehabilitation plan so far? The City’s opposition councilors want to know.

Councilor Joel Garganera lamented that no plan has been presented to the City Council yet.

“The absence of a system has resulted in a waste of government resources and also in inconvenience. The administration is not being as transparent as it should be,” he told reporters in Bisaya Friday, Nov. 9.

In September 2017, the City Council approved P52.4 million to cover the cost of rehabilitating the 15.4-hectare landfill.

Of the amount, P35.2 million was allocated for the construction of a perimeter fence on a five-hectare area of the facility.

Some P10 million was allocated for the recovery of the three-hectare service area, and another P3.4 million was set aside for the rehabilitation of the facility’s causeway.

Around P780,000 was also allocated for greening and vegetation activities in the landfill, and P3 million more was set aside for other related expenses and for the installation of a new weighbridge scale.

“Why was there an appropriation already amounting to millions? Do they have the result of the feasibility study? Why did they go ahead with all those expenses?” Garganera asked.

When the six resolutions on the rehabilitation of the landfill was voted on by members of the council, the minority bloc expressed their opposition.

Although they were generally supportive of the move to rehabilitate the facility, the minority bloc argued that it would be best to wait for the feedback from the service providers that will be tapped by the City Government before a budget is appropriated.

To shed light on the matter, Garganera will file a resolution during the regular session on Tuesday, Nov. 13, asking the City Environment and Natural Resources Office and the Department of Public Services to give a report on the status of the post-closure rehab plan.

Last February, the City Council authorized Mayor Tomas Osmeña to enter into and sign a consultancy agreement with Full Advantage Philippines International Inc. to assess waste depth, volume, leachate generated and determine the land area covered by wastes inside the landfill.