QC loses P250M a year to flawed garbage system

The largest and most populous city in Metro Manila, Quezon City, is losing at least P253 million annually in taxpayers’ money from the non-implementation of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. The city spends the most on garbage collection and disposal, paying close to P1 billion a year to 6 private contractors who haul residents’ trash to a sanitary landfill in Payatas. RA 9003 requires local government units (LGUs) to decentralize garbage collection and disposal, and mandates all barangays to have their own materials recovery facility where recyclables and compostable trash are sorted and segregated from residual garbage. Local officials do not seem keen on implementing it because garbage is a “cash cow for many LGUs, especially in Metro Manila,” Froilan Gate, Mother Earth Foundation president, said.

 
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