BAGUIO CITY – The city council wants the local chief executive to suspend the implementation of the city’s integrated solid waste disposal facility project within the city-owned 139-hectare property in barangay Sto. Tomas Apugan until such time that the city’s 10-year solid waste management plan shall have been approved by the local legislative body.
The council action came after the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) approved the city’s 10-year solid waste management plan last October even without the approval of the local legislative body which is one of the requirements prior to the approval of the plan by the Commission.
The previous council also approved the recommendation of outgoing Councilor Betty Lourdes F. Tabanda requesting that the members of the incoming council should immediately tackle and act on the submitted 10-year city solid waste management plan so that the city could move on in coming out with much better alternatives in solving the city’s garbage disposal problem aside from the existing hauling of waste to the engineered sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.
Earlier, Councilor Peter Fianza proposed a resolution for the declaration of the city’s 10-year solid waste management plan as inoperative until such time that the council shall have approved the plan vis-à-vis the approval made by the NSWMC on the plan.
However, Fianza acceded to the arguments of some councilors that the outright rejection of the 10-year solid waste management plan of the city will create more problems than solutions, thus, consensus was arrived at for seeking the suspension of the implementation of the integrated solid waste disposal project until the council shall have acted on the plan.
Included in the project that has been proposed to be suspended will be the establishment of a centralized materials recovery facility (MRF), an anaerobic digester, the waste-to-energy facility, health care and medical waste treatment facility and special waste treatment facility, and operation of the Environmental Recycling System (ERS), all in the city-owned property in Sto. Tomas, Apugan barangay.
It can be recalled that the City General Services Office submitted to the city council the 10-yearr solid waste management plan on March 8, 2016 for approval several months after the NSWMC stamped its approval on the plan.
The council agreed that all other activities in the city solid waste management plan can proceed except for the pursuit of the integrated solid waste disposal project considering that the incoming council has yet to deliberate on the matter whether or not to push through with the project in Sto. Tomas Apugan or in the new proposed site at the open pit area of the Benguet Corporation (BC) in Antamok, Itogon, Benguet.
The council is expected to transmit its action to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan for his further needed action considering that the NSWMC is awaiting whatever amendments to be made for upgrading of the plan on the part of the regulating agency./Dexter A. See
