By Lorie Ann A. Cascaro and Greg Deligero
THE largest city in the world (as Dabawenyos proudly describe it) is home to 11 public cemeteries, but it has no so-called cemetery board to act as a policy-making body that will oversee their management.
Jose Elmario P. Guintadcan, head of the City Economic Enterprises Office, has his own colorful description of the public cemeteries: “They are topsy-turvy!” They are without order and proper sanitation, he said, adding that “there is no assurance that hospital wastes are not being dumped there.” He went on to say that “even the pathways are being used as sites for tombs.”
The public cemeteries are located at Ma-a, Bunawan, Tibungco, Panacan, Wireless, Mintal, Tugbok, Tagacpan, Calinan, Toril and Paquibato.
Guintadcan said the Ma-a cemetery is located in a low-lying area and dumping of hospital wastes directly into the ground without benefit of a septic vault is a violation of the sanitation code. The Davao Doctors Hospital used to dump its wastes directly into the ground, according to cemetery caretaker, Rufino Impit, who said the DDH had been banned from continuing the practice until such time as it constructs a septic vault thereat.
In an interview with Guintadcan, he admitted that he does not know how many hospitals dump their wastes in public cemeteries. “Dili ta kabalo. Naa may dili mananghid (we don’t really know because they never ask permission),” he said.
Underscoring efforts of the government to implement the law with the help of those in charge of the cemeteries, Guintadcan said with a tinge of dismay, “Hindi dahil malalaking hospitals sila, kakayanin na nila ang gobyierno (Just because they are the leading hospitals around here doesn’t mean they can take the government for granted!)”.
“We don’t want that wastes will simply be buried. I want to have order…We want to base our actions in accordance with law,” he added.
Biological wastes as defined by Edgar C. Lape, housekeeping head of the Davao Doctors Hospital, “are any materials that contain or have been contaminated by a bio hazardous agent. These include perti dishes, surgical wraps, culture tubes, syringes, needles, blood vials, absorbent material, personal protective equipment and pipette tips.”
The DDH generates 1,135 kilos of trash daily or 34,050 kilos a month since 2008, according to Lape. He added that while the Cenro collects their hospital’s non-infectious wastes daily, DDH buries their infectious wastes in a septic vault at the Ma-a cemetery, a statement that’s opposite to what the caretaker told Edge Davao.
Where’s the vault?
When Edge Davao visited Ma-a cemetery last week to check on whether the DDH had a septic vault there we were told that the hospital was prohibited from dumping its wastes in the cemetery until it shall have built its own septic vault there.
According to the caretaker, “Gibawalan naman sila sa Economic Enterprise kay wala nila na-comply ang requirement na magbuhat og septic tank (vault).”
He said the practice of DDH then was to hire a few men from the neighborhood to dig a pit of about five to six feet deep and having an area equivalent to the size of two regular tombs combined. He added that the wastes were applied with a certain chemical before being burned and buried in the pit.
But Dr. Teogenes Baluma, director of the Department of Health (DOH) 11, earlier said the government banned the use of incinerators under the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999, or Republic Act No. 8749. It also bans the burning of poison-emitting biomedical and hazardous wastes.
Allowed
Last October, Edge Davao conducted inquiries among all hospitals in the city regarding their waste management practices. According to lawyer Joseph Felizarta, officer in charge of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), hospitals are allowed to dump their non-infectious waste at the sanitary landfill in Carmen, Davao del Norte.
“Yung hospital waste, may sariling vault yan. Allowed sila magtapon sa landfill pag treated ang hospital waste,” he said, adding that there’s no limit as to the volume of their wastes as long as they pay the tipping fee of P1,000 per ton.
Felizarta said the city government is planning to construct its own septic vault for hospital wastes.
Meanwhile, Reverend Ruben dela Cruz of the Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries, Inc., told Edge Davao earlier that the hospital has a septic vault for both pathological and infectious wastes which have been previously treated at source, labeled properly, recorded in a logbook and endorsed to the housekeeping staff with complete personal protective equipment.
On the other hand, Renato Celeridad of the Southern Philippine Medical Center (SPMC), also said earlier that SPMC has a very large compost pit right inside the compound for treated infectious waste.
Rehabilitation
Meanwhile, Guintadcan bared that at the moment his office is conducting an in-depth study for the rehabilitation of public cemeteries like those in Maa, Wireless, Bunawan, Panacan, Tibungco and Toril (Lubogan).
Last July, he proposed to City Mayor Sara Duterte for the creation of a cemetery board which will be the management and policy-making body for public cemeteries. He said the executive order had been released, although he has not as yet received a copy.
“The Board has yet to convene,” he said, adding that the mayor will head the board as chairman and she will designate an administrator. Any request that concerns the cemeteries, such as application by hospitals for septic tank construction, shall be discussed by the board.
Guintadcan said the use of the Ma-a cemetery as dumping site of DDH wastes was suspended pending the composition of the cemetery board which will convene in the first quarter next year.
