Baguio drops firm in waste recycling project due to poor performance

NO MORE TRASH MOUNTAIN Baguio City’s old dump in Barangay Irisan, which collapsed during a typhoon in 2011, can now grow plants following an extensive rehabilitation. The city government is hoping to convert this former mountain of trash into an ecological park and tourist spot. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO

BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — A company that was contracted to turn the city’s biodegradable waste into powdered fertilizer has been terminated by Mayor Benjamin Magalong for its poor performance.

Rapport Innovations Co. took over the operations of Baguio’s environment recycling system (ERS) machines in 2019, but has neither produced nor sold fertilizers for which the city government is entitled a share, said Eugene Buyuccan, chief of the city general services office (GSO) on Monday.

Rapport took over the system from Protech Machineries Corp., which sold the machines to the city government for P128 million.

It was expected to improve the technology and upgrade the machinery, which Buyuccan said had become “outdated and worn down.”

While Rapport introduced a wastewater containment system as required by the local government, GSO personnel discovered that untreated leachate was being discharged into a canal, Buyuccan told the city council.

Rapport had also stopped operating in 2020 because of the pandemic, leaving a huge backlog of unprocessed biodegradable waste, he said.

It resumed work in January “after much prodding,” Buyuccan said.

Appeal for dialogue

But the company appealed for a chance to hold a dialogue with Magalong, promising to correct its shortcomings although it disputed Buyuccan’s findings.

A lawyer for Rapport told the council that the company was seeking an amicable settlement with the city government, which is stipulated in the ERS agreement.

Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan said Rapport’s performance might impact the city’s accomplishments in relation to a 2012 writ of kalikasan covering the old mountain of trash.

The ERS units were installed in 2010 at the former dump that was forcibly closed by residents of Barangay Irisan in 2008.At that time, Baguio residents were fearful that the dump, which was opened in the 1970s, had far exceeded its capacity.

Trash slide

They were proven right when a strong downpour dumped by Typhoon “Mina” (international name: Nanmadol) in 2011 toppled a section of the dump over houses, releasing trash that would fill 10,000 trucks.

The trash slide killed six people, and polluted the groundwater of Tuba town in Benguet province, as well as the waterway leading to La Union province.

The writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court by Benguet and La Union residents. Among the city’s obligations to the high court was to turn the dump into a garden.

After two years of work, the GSO had introduced sufficient top soil to grow natural greenery on the former dump. Its workers constructed walkways and small huts as part of a master plan that would make the dump a tourist attraction.

—VINCENT CABREZA