Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said the city government will start the construction of its sanitary land fill before the end of the year.

He said he was informed by an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that there are now only four areas in the country with sanitary landfills – Puerto Princesa, Subic, San Pablo, and San Mateo in Bulacan.

“So, if we can start a landfill on the third quarter of this year, this will make us number five in the whole country,” he said.

Leonardia said that a number of DENR people have come and visited Bacolod already these past months and they believe it is much ahead in terms of compliance compared to many others.

So it is clear that the city is on track in as far as compliance with RA 9003 is concerned, he said.

“They also said we are among the leaders in Western Visayas in so far as compliance is concerned. So I believe that it is the DENR that is the authority on this, and not the Alyansa Kontra Basura,” he said.

Vicente Petierre III, acting City Legal Officer, said that during their educational trip to Palawan last week, they were surprised that Puerto Princesa, a Hall of Famer, has not yet implemented segregation at source, while Bacolod had already started in April 1 yet.

He said they are just conducting massive information and education campaign in the barangays right now.

They throw mixed garbage in their sanitary landfill and the employees of the government are the ones segregating them, he added.

Leonardia said the capability building activity was requested by the department heads and fully endorsed by the Human Resource Department. Since he assumed as mayor in 2004, the department heads have not had a capability building trip, he said.

All the department heads were assigned to visit their respective counterparts and they had a conference with them at the City Hall of Puerto Princesa, he added.

Since January, about 500 groups from other local government units had visited the city based on records from the City Tourism Office, Leonardia said.

Puerto Princesa Mayor Ed Hagedorn, who received them at the airport, told them that about 300 LGU’s had visited their city last week.

Leonardia said Palawan is the biggest city now with about 254,000 hectares compared to Bacolod which has only 16,000 hectares.

Bacolod Housing Authority head Josephine Segundino said they were required by the mayor to submit a written report of their observations in Puerto Princesa.

She said they had an opportunity to see the tenement housing project of Puerto Princesa which is a two-storey complex with two units and each unit houses 48 rooms.

Segundino said Puerto Princesa has spent P23 million for each structure and they have an area for housing of about 412 hectares and have spent P778 million for their housing project.

She said Bacolod has spent a very minimal budget but was able to generate 5,000 lots for Hamdumanan, 1,798 lots for Vista Alegre, and about 400 lots for Fortune Towne with a minimal land development which can be at par in terms of facilities and utilities.

Segundino said she has requested the mayor for additional areas for possible landbanking. In their shelter plan, they have come up with a 10-year master plan for housing, she said.

The city needs about 50 hectares a year for the next 10 years to address the housing backlog, Segundino said.

She said the mayor has funded their project for this year, which is the community-based monitoring system which is one way of updating their master list of 1997.*CGS

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