‘Excessive garbage in Bacolod’

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez said there is excessive trash in the city of Bacolod, one reason why the collection contractor cannot be fully blamed for the uncollected garbage in various parts of the city.

Benitez made the statement Friday in a press conference where complaints about garbage collection in the city were raised.

He explained that based on the contract between the garbage collection contractor IPM Construction and Development Corp and the city, “we miscalculated it by 50 percent.”

The mayor also said that the calculation may have been in 2021 yet during the pandemic when restaurants and business establishments were closed.

“Now people are going out again, moving around, and eating out, that caused the spike (trash volume). Based on the volume that I am seeing right now, we mis-projected it by fifty percent,” the mayor said.

“Let us put it in perspective, so far ang tonnage of garbage to be collected based on the agreement of the city and the IPM Construction and Development Corp is about 30 or 40 cubic meters per month and now if I am not wrong it is fifty percent more ang aton nga trash,” Benitez said.

He added that “if you look at it, the contract between IPM and Bacolod City does not cover the whole volume of garbage nga kinahanglan hakoton.”

He said on that alone there is discrepancy adding that “so whether it is the fault of IPM  nga wala ya madala tanan nga basura, masabat man lang sya nga ang inyo basura is beyond the volume that was agreed upon.”

Benitez further said that he will be asking the Sanggunian to come up with a different arrangement wherein the contractor will be paid extra if they collect more than what is stipulated in the contract.

He also said that the actual volume of trash cannot be ascertained and is just being estimated based on the number of truckloads of garbage collected.

As far as the sanitary landfill is concerned, Benitez said Cell Number 3, which is the expansion of the landfill, was opened and will be good for eight months.

He said the city is preparing two options to address the situation – one is the expansion of the landfill and the second is to reduce garbage.

The target is to recycle at least 80 percent of the garbage instead of being dumped in the landfill.

Benitez also said that the city will have to increase its garbage trucks to collect the trash adding that he has initially talked with IPM and told them that the city will pay for the excess garbage collected based on the contract.