SP to approve P600M more for city solid waste project

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
The Davao City Council is set to approve on final reading today the additional P600 million allocation for the city’s Solid Waste Management Project.
The additional budget as contained in the ordinance granting legislative authority for Supplemental Budget (SB) No.1 of the City Government of Davao for Calendar Year 2015 is expected to be passed during the regular session.
The SB1 is intended to augment the Upgrading of Solid Waste Management and Collection System of the City which will be implemented by the City Environment Resources Office (CENRO) and to be sourced from loans from Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).
CENRO plans to acquire 22 garbage compactors with a total cost of P364.135 million. The office also wants to procure 13, 566 mobile garbage bins with a total cost of P235.860 million.
City Council committee on finance, ways and means and appropriation chair Councilor Danilo C. Dayanghirang told Edge Davao in an interview that the release of loan should be based on the guidelines of Commission and Audit, Department of Budget and Management and Republic Act 9184 or “Government Procurement Reform Act.”
“Kung unsay paliton, ibase gyud sa balaod (Whatever procurement made, it should be based on the existing laws),” he said.
Dayanghirang said they also require CENRO to submit the manual of securing the garbage bins to assure that it will not be lost, adding that it will be submitted after the approval of the ordinance.
“The idea of this is to make sure that the bins will not be lost. But, it is the obligation of the CENRO and the barangay officials to take care of the bins since it is a government property,” Dayanhghirang said.
He added that Councilor Bonifacio Militar also asked the City Accounting Office to submit to the records of the loans from LBP.
“In principle, the loan should stay first in the bank and the release will be based on the procurement rules and regulation,” Dayanghirang said.
CENRO, in the committee report, said that the project is very important in order to procure all the equipment needed for the upgrade in the garbage collection in the city.
“The number of population and establishments are directly proportional to the volume generation of solid waste, hence, the generated volume of the city will also expect to increase rapidly,” CENRO head Engr. Elsa P. Madrazo said.
Based on the presentation of Madrazo during the last session, the project aims to effectively deliver services on garbage Collection to the community.
CENRO, according to Madrazo, needed 100 trips per day to collect 684 tons of total garbage volume of the city. She presented the breakdown of daily trips and volume collected by the office.
The CENRO needs 66 trips to collect the 480 tons of residual waste and 27 trips for the 184 tons bio waste from the more than 150 collection points in the city per day.
Madrazo added that there are five trips to collect the 30 tons of market bio wastes and one trip each to collect the five tones of trimming waste and five tons of special collection garbage from establishments.
She also said that her office wants the city to maintain the prestige as Environmentally Sustainable City in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).