Garbage trucks for barangays not SUVs, council tells Rama

CEBU City barangays need more garbage trucks not sport utility vehicles which Mayor Michael Rama is now giving out to his allies.

The City Council passed  in a resolution introduced by councilor Nida Cabrera is asking Rama to prioritize the release of more  garbage trucks to the barangays to ensure efficient garbage collections.

Engr. Dionisio Guadaliza, head of the Department of Public Services (DPS), said in an earlier interview that his office only has 17 serviceable garbage trucks. Most of the barangay garbage trucks are also not operational.

Councilor Margot Osmeña said that approved guidelines on the allocation of P100 million in the 2012 budget supposedly gives the barangay officials the discretion to decide the type of vehicle which they want from their P1 million allocation.

Osmeña said that some barangays wanted garbage trucks and ambulances.

But Rama used the money to buy sports utility vehicles or SUVs for the 80 barangays. He has so far distributed 34 SUVs the memorandum receipt of which were issued to his ally barangay captains or councilors.

Meanwhile, the City Council is also set to meet in executive session on Wednesday the head of the Inayawan Landfill Randy Navarro to shed light on the real operations of the waste disposal facility that Rama ordered closed last December.

The council wants clarified over Navarro’s statements to the media that only 40 percent of the city’s solid waste of 300 tons are disposed in the private landfill in Consolacion town while 60 percent are still dumped in the Inayawan landfill. /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters