Segregate your waste. This is the appeal of the City of Dumaguete to its residents, in an effort to reduce the volume of trash to be collected.
Segregating garbage from the home means simply separating the wet from the dry wastes, so that the dry (like plastics, bottles, and paper) can be recycled; and the wet waste (like fruit peelings and food refuse) can be composted right in our backyards.
Segregating garbage from the home also reduces waste that need to be collected and thrown “away” at landfills and public dumpsites.
The Dumaguete City dumpsite in barangay Candau-ay, which agents of the National Bureau of Investigation closed last week, has been reopened, while the City is rushing to finish the new Materials Recovery Facility in another site within the barangay.
The alternative MRF site is still 30 percent complete, even as the Department of Environment & Natural Resources has approved the Safe Closure &Rehabilitation Plan of the existing dumpsite.
In a meeting at the house of Mayor Felipe Remollo last week, City Department heads briefed barangay officials on the ongoing construction of the Central MRF, and eventually the sanitary landfill, in the newly-purchased eight-hectare lot.
It was learned that the City will finally close the dumpsite once the MRF and sanitary landfill shall have been completed and operational.
Vice Mayor Alan Gel Cordova said that even if the President of the country himself comes and orders the closure of the dumpsite, it cannot be done instantly as there are processes to be followed.
The City Council, meanwhile, is trying to find acceptable explanations as well as concrete counter-actions on the operation of the NBI agents from Manila that led to the arrest of 10 of the City’s garbage collectors and drivers.
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The City Council passed a resolution during Wednesday’s regular session condemning the incident, even as Councilor Joe Kenneth Arbas moved to ask for a Senate inquiry on the incident, considering that NBI-Manila is involved.
He urged the City’s legal team to study possible criminal and administrative charges against the NBI-Manila agents that embarrassed the City government for having been caught flat-footed.
The operation of the agents from NBI Manila was carried out in secret that even the local NBI said they had no prior knowledge about it.
Though later released on recognizance to Mayor Remollo, the garbage collectors and drivers are now facing charges in court.
Councilor Karissa Faye Tolentino-Maxino said it would be best to call for an investigation to study the possible filing of administrative and criminal cases, adding that while the NBI agents could just be doing their jobs, they acted in excess of their authority.
Council members stressed that uncollected garbage becomes a bigger problem due to a possible spread of diseases, especially with the onset of the rainy season.
The application of the City for an Environmental Compliance Certificate for the sanitary landfill is pending with the DENR, so the local government continues to operate a “controlled” dumpsite. (Juancho Gallarde)
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