DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has asked city residents whether they want a private company to take charge in the collection of garbage in the city.
In his TV program on Sunday, he said in his parting statement that a private company collecting the city’s garbage is happening in other places such as Quezon City. In that scheme, the city government would just pay private garbage collectors, and would not be troubled with the actual garbage collection.
“But you have to decide if you want this,” he said.
He said, “We have to renew the system. We have to fix the garbage problem.”
He said they need to make repairs and refleet the city’s garbage trucks and compactors owing to wear and tear of long years of use.
The mayor said he plans to borrow money from Land Bank of the Philippines to fund the acquisition of new trash bins, which he wants to be bigger in size.
He said trash bins originally placed in designated streets and highways all over the city have been decimated by floods, private use of unconcerned citizens and by the time’s wear and tear as these are about 10 years already.
He would also tap trisikads (cycle rickshaws) in collecting garbage in short distances to the designated places of disposal, so that in that way trisikad drivers could have additional source of livelihood.
At present, the City Hall is paying much for the rental fee of privately owned garbage trucks.
Recently, OIC City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) Elisa Madrazo bared a dismal figure of running garbage vehicles owned by the city—two garbage trucks and a compactor joining with some 100 privately owned garbage trucks.
She said the rental fee varies. For the Poblacion it is P20 per kilometer per day, while in Lasang, the city spends P20,000 per day. In Calinan district, the city is paying as high as P1-million rental fee per month.
Cenro has some 500 garbage collectors deployed to man for the city owned and contracted garbage trucks.
The city’s garbage and waste are finally thrown off at sanitary landfill in Barangay New Carmen, Tugbok district.