WE had been harping on this issue for quite some time already in this column. Our reason is that the items involved cost a lot of money from the City government of Davao which comes from the taxes Davaoenos pay as obligation annually.
The issue we are referring to which we do not tire repeating here for as long as no action is taken by the proper local government agencies, specifically the City Environment and Natural Resources Office or CENRO, is the non-distribution of garbage bins delivered to several rural barangays shortly before the pandemic started in 2020. These garbage bins are just piled in some corners of barangay halls compound instead of being distributed to strategic locations in the beneficiary villages for residents to dispose of their house refuse.
It’s been three years already since the garbage receptacles were delivered, without doubt by the CENRO. However, these remain stocked and have not been used according to its purpose. Instead, these are left to the mercy of nature’s elements. It is a good thing that the bins are made of hard plastic that only some of its covers are detached but the main depository portion remains intact.
Nevertheless, the length of time that the garbage bins lay idle, grasses of tall varieties are already growing on the sides of the piles and have grown to as tall as the height of the pile.
We just do not know why these garbage bins have remained undistributed. But we are starting to think that neither the CENRO nor the barangay officials know whose responsibility is the distribution of the bins. Imagine the three- year period of just being eyesores to the people who could have availed of its use if these were distributed to where the bins should be in the villages!
We are just hoping that the non-action of those concerned local government agencies is not an indication that they are deft and blind of the situation. Or, should we say they are simply irresponsible, salary-waiting employees of the city?
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Indeed this holiday season is likely to bring lots of money to the treasury of the Island Garden City of Samal or IGaCoS. What with the thousands of local and international tourists entering the island city to enjoy the ambience of its famous beaches and resorts!
Perhaps, this season is the first time that the city’s economy gets so vibrant after three years of hiatus because of the pandemic. The money that flows into the local economy of course comes from the revenge comeback of the operation of businesses in the city as well as from the P40-per-person environmental fee that is collected from every tourist that enters the city’s beach resorts and related amenities.
Unfortunately, there are some services that the local government must have missed looking into and institute measures to correct the weakness. We are referring to the city government’s failure to check the preparedness of the barge services to tourists who are coming riding their own service vehicles.
We learned that in the past few days the queue or line of vehicles wanting to cross the Pakiputan channel on board barges was getting longer by the hour. And it was worst last Monday and Tuesday. In fact some members of our family who went to IGaCoS for an overnight bonding activity arrived at the Sasa barge landing area at about 7 in the morning of Monday. They waited for almost two hours before they could board the barge. They reached Samal side at 10 o’clock.
The situation was even more patient-sapping the day after or Tuesday when they went back to the mainland. They arrived in Babak district at the tail-end of the queue somewhere near the rotunda area over a kilometer from the barge landing site. And with public utility buses given some kind of “priority”, believe it or not they (our family members) were able to board on one of only two barges operational that day, at about 7 in the evening. In other words their wait was a good six hours. They could have reached Buenavista in Agusan del Norte if they were travelling to the place in that length of time.
Well, as we said here in the earlier part of this treatise, the number of visitors in Samal this holiday season is keeping the IGaCos economy’s c ash register ringing on. And the ringing could even be louder and faster for the coffers of the barge operators.
But there is no doubt that both the LGU and the barge owners may have taken for granted the convenience of the own vehicle-riding visitors that they did not anticipate the possibilities of breakdowns of some barge units.
This kind of service and lack of facilitative ways for the visitors’ convenience could lead to the possible dissatisfaction of the departing tourists and may deter the desire of others who intend to visit Samal in the future.
We hope the young mayor Al David Uy of IGaCoS will call for a review of the policies applied in the barge operation. That is, if the local government has any.
