• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Two members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod are pushing for the strict monitoring of the compliance of IPM Construction and Development Corp. of its P303-million collection/hauling and disposal of garbage contract with the city government.
This as Councilor Homer Bais, chairperson of the SP Committee on Environment and Ecology, stressed in his privilege speech at their session July 16, that IPM should be penalized for every violation it committed in the 11-month contract that started February this year.
IPM should shape up or ship out, Bais said, echoing Mayor Greg Gasataya’s challenge during his inaugural address, and noting that the flashflood that submerged many houses last weekend was mainly due to “clogged drainage systems filled with uncollected garbage and plastic waste”.
In the contract signed in January this year by then mayor Alfredo Benitez and IPM president Isabelita Mercado, the contractor has the “full responsibility to manage/administer and directly carry out collection, cleaning, and disposal of solid waste (excluding non-household hazardous waste) from various sources, such as from households, public markets, satellite markets, public and private institutions;
Government offices, schools, churches, business establishments, streets including main and secondary roads, alleys, vacant lots, and designated collection points in the city, and transporting these (to the) designated landfill disposal site in Barangay Felisa”.
Bais, however, said that “garbage woes continue to persist and is far from over”….despite the efforts of then mayor Benitez and his team to find appropriate solutions to the garbage problem.
He and Councilor Caesar Distrito also took note of the lapses of IPM in its collection schedule.
In the contract, IPM must follow the garbage zonal collection schedule established by the Bacolod Environment and Natural Resources Office (BENRO), which includes a daily pick-up of garbage from 41 numbered barangays, and along main roads like Lacson, Araneta, San Juan, Rizal, Gonzaga, Libertad, Mabini, Burgos, Hilado, Capitol Shopping Area, C.L. Montelibano, whole of downtown area, B.S. Aquino Drive, circumferential and other main and secondary roads, and at the three major markets, the satellite markets, and establishments and other areas identified by the BENRO.
“If the contractor does not comply with the garbage zonal collection schedule, and there are complaints of uncollected garbage that remain unresolved (by the IPM) within 24 hours of notification by the BENRO, an appropriate penalty will be imposed by the city,” the contract added.
For failure to comply with the established garbage zonal collection schedule, or to act on notification of uncollected or partially-collected garbage within 24 hours, the IPM shall be fined P1,000 for first offense, P2,000 for the second offense, and P3,000 and a warning of contract termination for third offense.
Other offenses have similar fines and penalties under the contract.
Bais told the Negros NOW Daily that IPM and BENRO, and other concerned offices, will be asked to attend a public hearing soon to thresh out the pressing problem of waste management in the city, and related issues on the garbage collection contract. | CGC
