By XENIA RIBAYA
ABS-CBN Baguio
BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio City Council on Wednesday cancelled plans to declare the city under a state of calamity due to the impending garbage problem.
This was after the City Budget Office declared that the city’s calamity fund is not enough to support the expensive daily hauling of garbage to Capas, Tarlac.
Majority of the city councilors said that the garbage problem is not considered a natural calamity but a man-made calamity, thus, access to the calamity fund should not be permitted.
Baguio City has a remaining P30 million calamity fund.
In the end, the council decided to allot P10 million from the unappropriated surplus in the budget to sustain the daily hauling of garbage, while pursuing a cheaper alternative to dispose the city’s daily garbage generation.
One garbage hauling trip costs the city P24,800.
The city has earlier allotted P85 million from the supplemental budget to address the garbage problem.
Baguio City has a daily garbage collection of 150 tons, and at present, the City Environment and Parks Management Office only collects garbage selectively among the city’s 127 barangays.
Officials and residents of nearby towns Tuba, Itogon, Sablan, and La Trinidad stand firm on opposing to Baguio’s proposal of establishing new dumpsites in their areas.
Baguio City has identified Naguilian and Bauang in La Union province, Philex Mines and Sto. Nino Mines as among prospective host facilities.
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