City Council probes landfill

The City Council wants to be clarified on the actual operations of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill which Mayor Michael Rama ordered closed in Dec. 2011.

Councilor Nida Cabrera, head of the council’s environment committee, said there were conflicting reports on the real state of the 15-hectare landfill which caused confusion among the City Council.

In a resolution she filed on Aug. 22, Cabrera said the landfill’s continued operation is a violation of Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

Cabrera’s resolution also required the presence of landfill manager Randy Navarro for an executive session on Sept. 12.

Cabrera cited newspaper reports about the continued operations of the landfill despite the mayor’s closure order.

Atty. Janeses Ponce, head of the Solid Waste Management Board,  clarified that the dumpsite operations had already stopped.

He said vehicle movement in the area may be giving people the impression that it remains open for dumping.

Cabrera’s resolution specifically mentioned a Cebu Daily News report dated Aug. 14 which attributed a statement of Engr. Navarro that the landfill continues to accommodate the bulk of the city’s garbage.

Navarro said in that news story that only 40 percent of the city’s garbage is dumped into the private landfill facility in Consolacion town while the remaining 60 percent still end up in the Inayawan facility.

“This inconsistency in the statements of two officials in the executive branch, one representing the City Mayor in the Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board, and from the landfill management is appalling and is indicative that there could be more than what meets the eye in the activities inside the landfill,” said Cabrera’s resolution.

It added that RA 9003 is very clear about solving garbage issues in local government units by encouraging resource conservation and recovery.

The law also sets the targets for waste avoidance and volume reduction through source reduction and waste minimization measures including composting, recycling, reuse, recovery before collection, treatment and disposal in accordance with ecologically sustainable development principles.

Cabrera’s resolution said the law also mandates the establishment of Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) in the barangays to receive, sort and process garbage.  In fact, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) authorized the release of a P55 million grant to build the MRFs in three barangays.

“Given the differing state of the landfill and statements on the state of the Inayawan Sanitary landfill, there is a need to be updated on the real condition of the facility from the effectivity of the cessation order,” Cabrera’s resolution stated. /Edison A. delos Angeles, Correspondent