Newsbriefs

LANDFILL CLOSURE PLANS HANGING

BARELY a week before the target date, the Cebu City government has not finalized its plans to close the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill.
Councilor Edu Rama Jr., vice chairman of the City Council’s public services committee, said City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete is still reviewing the contract with the landfill operator in Consolacion town.
Councilor Rama said the garbage transfer stations planned for southern barangays also remain unfinished.
But Mayor Michael Rama is confident that everything will be ironed out before his Nov. 7 target deadline for the landfill closure.
“If there are no intervening events, we are seeing that the lights are getting brighter and so far so good,” Rama said.
The mayor called for a meeting with officials of at least 10 northern barangays at his house in Basak-San Nicolas to discuss the landfill closure.
Among those present were  officials of barangays Apas, Carreta, Binaliw, Pulangbato and Hipodromo.
Rama will meet with officials from the southern barangays today and tomorrow.
“We are now more than 50 percent ready with our preparations for the landfill closure,” Rama said.
During the meeting, the barangays that will be asked to dump their garbage directly to the Consolacion landfill were identified.
Initially, the Solid Waste Management Board wanted barangays close to Consolacion town like Pit-os and  Talamban to directly transport their garbage there.
Southern barangays will be asked to bring their garbage to a transfer station and  leased trucks will then deliver the garbage to the Consolacion facility.
“But everything is subject to change until the mayor says the closure of the landfill is final,” Councilor Rama told Cebu Daily News. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

MANDAUE OUTREACH PROGRAM SET

THE outreach program Barangayan in Mandaue opens today in barangay Subangdaku, the city’s biggest locality.
The activity starts with an 8 a.m.  feeding program for children followed by services like processing of birth certificates and medical and dental programs.
An open forum will be held with Mayor Jonas Cortes from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The program started in 2008. The  last Barangayan was held in  Umapad early this year. /Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos