My cousin noticed one particular thing during her first visit to Baguio. "There are so many plastics here," said the innocent 5-year-old girl as we were wandering around Burnham Park. Again, she’s only five. Visiting a world-renowned city, but what she could possibly remember it for excludes the “cool” side of the country’s summer capital.
I was caught off guard and embarrassed, to be quite frank. But I knew I needed to respond. The very same way these two have to: the public, and the government.
The city government of Baguio is studying privatizing garbage collection as a potential solution to this decades-long issue of waste management. A waste assessment and characterization study conducted by the City General Services Office (GSO) revealed that the city will be able to save up to P45 million if it pledges to acquire services from the private sector, which in this case concerns the disposal of the city garbage.
Considering the rapid industrialization and influx of the city’s population, privatizing garbage disposal could forsooth be the optimal option the city has to efficiently manage its waste. Ironically, asking the private sector, with obviously fewer helping hands, to help fix a public concern caused entirely by the majority.
Pointing fingers
Should I point the finger at the public for turning a blind eye to our crucial responsibility for the waste we consume?
In a statement released by the Baguio City Public Information Office in 2020, Mayor Benjamin Magalong had directed the reconstruction of a task force to lead the implementation of Ordinance No. 35 series of 2017, or "The Plastic and Styrofoam-Free Baguio Ordinance."
Despite such measures from the city government to eradicate the waste that the city produces, there seems to be no change at all. Records tell us that the GSO collects an overwhelming amount of 402 tons of waste daily, which is far more than the 160 tons collected in recent years. This equates to 1.5 kilos of waste generated by each resident or transient, according to 2016 data presented by Eugene Buyuccan, GSO head.
The need to privatize garbage disposal only validates the reality of our overconsumption of the sources of waste and undermines our accountability over them. Everyone will ultimately pay the consequences of our actions once privatization takes place.
To properly manage all the waste being generated by the people, tourists may soon be asked to add P10 or P20 to their hotel fees, and households may have to pay a garbage fee depending on the volume of their weekly garbage following a "pay-as-you-throw" policy. While this may only be right in possibly disciplining the people’s consumption, it imposes a great financial burden on many, acknowledging the nation’s current economic situation.
This will most significantly affect the students staying in the city, as tuition charged by universities may include at least P120 as the learners’ annual garbage fees. Considering the issues surrounding the hike in tuition fees at universities, the city would only be fueling the fire if it continued its plan.
We cannot solve a problem by creating another one. Saving millions of pesos and serving the people with a more cost-efficient garbage disposal would all be meaningless if it compromises a major aspect of the way people sustain themselves.
However, because we, the public, are majorly affected by the privatization, it is also vital that we recognize our own obligations to help ourselves minimize our expenses by minimizing what we use.
Trivializing government competence
Or should I have explained to her that the government is accountable for providing mechanisms through which the city can manage waste responsibly? But either way, I do not think she would have understood because it confuses me as well.
I am not undermining the city government’s efforts to eradicate the cost of disposal and the amount of waste; I know the government has plans, at least. As a matter of fact, given the large number of waste generated by the city, it is not surprising that it spends more than P185 million for maintenance and other expenditures on solid waste management, according to the GSO. The said amount, unfortunately, continues to increase due to the increase in the cost of fuel.
To address this costly process, Baguio City Government is looking into diminishing the distance between the city and the landfill, which is currently in Capas, Tarlac, once the sanitary landfill situated in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, is fully rehabilitated.
Until now, the plan to privatize waste management remains a plan, and amidst this uncertainty, one thing is clear: the success of the plan may require a P3-billion investment from a private contractor. An investment that concerns some of the residents, saying that a corporate waste manager might constitute another monopoly and charge them high garbage fees. This fear is fueled by the very system that constantly promises development but has little to no commitment to it.
It appears that the government is doing something, but something is not enough, and for now, privatizing the disposal of garbage is not the last piece needed to complete the puzzle that is the city government’s competence.
Privatization just does not sit right. The mechanism being considered appears to be too much for a problem that is, in the same way, too much. There are enough competent ordinances existing that people could follow more strictly and the government could implement more efficiently. One of which is the city’s 32-year-old Anti-Littering Ordinance, which has recently been amended by the Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Baguio.
The issue of waste is simple. I understand that; even my five-year-old cousin gets it. But the confusion is most perceptible in the way we manage them. A plan unimplemented is not, in any way, better than an existing order that only has poor implementation. While the idea of privatization is more ideal and cost-efficient, it says a great deal about the government’s inadequacy to provide mechanisms to control such public issues on its own.
Comments