Lapu brgy captain blames mayor for uncollected waste

The garbage feud in Lapu-Lapu City is heating up, with a barangay captain blaming the city government for uncollected garbage along national roads.

Barangay Basak captain Isabelito Darnayla responded to earlier reports quoting Mayor Paz Radaza as saying that barangay Basak has one of the most number of citation tickets for violating the city’s solid waste management ordinance.

Collection of garbage along the national road is an obligation of the city government, while thebarangay is in-charge of collecting the trash along the barangay road and interior areas, Darnayla said.

He said the uncollected pile of garbage seen along the highway in his barangay started last Sunday, after reports came out that businessman Efrain “Jun” Pelaez filed a complaint at the Ombudsman Visayas against Mayor Paz Radaza and 29 barangay captains.

Radaza branded Pelaez’s move as politically motivated since the complaint excluded Darnayla from the lawsuit despite receiving a hundred citation ticket by City Hall for failure to properly manage their solid waste.

Yesterday morning Radaza visited the national road of barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City to check on the pile of garbage along the road.

Radaza said, if garbage remains uncollected after 24 hours starting yesterday, she will instruct the Solid Waste Management Board of Lapu-Lapu City to issue another citation against the barangay.

Darnayla said for the past years, even during the administration of then mayor and now Congressman Arturo Radaza, their garbage was frequently collected by the City Hall’s garbage trucks.

“We have practiced waste segregation for a long time already. City Hall collects it, but it is only lately when news reports that Pelaez filed the lawsuit that excluded me that they stopped collecting our garbage. I think Ma’am Radaza has politicized the issue,” Darnayla said in Cebuano.

Darnayla said he even pleaded to Mayor Paz Radaza last Tuesday to continue collecting their garbage even until this month because their Material Recovery Facility will only be operational in October.

Residents along the highway already complained about the foul odor and flies feasting on the pile of garbage.

Wivina Basbas said her children already suffered from coughs and asked their city and barangay officials to remove the garbage in front their house at sitio 3H, barangay Basak.