For as long as this particular issue is not addressed by the proper local government authorities, we will never tire of harping on this again and again even if we will be called like a broken record.
We mean the delivery of several units of garbage bins made of hard plastic to some lucky (but more of unlucky) rural barangays in the third district or possibly also in the second, even the first districts. To repeat one more time, the garbage bins could have been bought in millions of pesos and delivered to recipient villages by the city government before the May 2019 elections.
The purchase intention, of course, is clearly manifested in the name of the item itself – bins for garbage to maintain sanitation in the barangays concerned. But lo and behold! It has been three years since the bins were delivered. But until now these remain undistributed to locations in the barangays that would be strategic for the disposal of household refuse or garbage by residents or businesses, and for CENRO-contracted dump trucks to collect. Instead, the garbage bins are piled at the back of barangay health centers like the ones we have in our village; at the side of barangay halls; or somewhere on the less noticeable side of covered courts of certain barangay recipients.
Yesterday after attending the mass for Ash Wednesday, we came across a barangay official of a neighboring village. We pointed to a pile of garbage bins slowly being covered by tall variety of grasses just near the chapel where we heard mass and had ourselves administered the Ash Wednesday rites. We asked him if the share of their barangay of bins have already been distributed to where it should be so the residents can start using it and have the refuse collected in accordance with the schedule by the contracted garbage hauling vehicles.
His answer was a long shake of his head saying at the same time that “no, the bins are still piled at the back of the barangay hall.” He added however, that since the delivery of the bins in 2019 officials of recipient barangays had been called several times by the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) for an orientation seminar on the distribution of the bins and schedule of collection by the contractors, as well as the responsibilities of the barangay recipients..
He claimed the officials concerned told them that the CENRO will just communicate with them when the office feel the time is appropriate to issue a “go-signal.” Unfortunately for the barangays, according to the village official we talked with, it was not clear for the representatives attending the forum whether the responsibility to transport the bins to where it should be strategically located is that of the barangay; or that it is the CENRO’s primary responsibility.
Meanwhile, the much-awaited “go-signal” from the CENRO, even if it is long overdue, has not yet come; not even a shadow of such a document in writing, or a low-decibel recording of any verbal “go-signal.” Now, who by the way, is the head of the CENRO of Davao City and how much influence he or she has with the one sitting on top that he/she seemed to be “untouchable” to those who should have the authority to have the CENRO people get off their butts to do what is necessary for the idle and possibly deteriorating garbage bins?
We are actually aghast at the ineptitude of the top officials at CENRO Davao. If they were able to read even for once our daily column when the garbage bins issue was carried, then they could at least have some of its men go to the barangays that have received their share of the bins and see for themselves what is happening to hose city assets. Perhaps when they do as we have suggested and make a truthful report, the CENRO swivel chair-seated bosses might just be convinced that the 3-year period of just being stocked somewhere is already long enough and a huge waste of the city’s resources.
We wonder if the CENRO officials concerned have the conscience to do justice to the money paid to the city in terms of taxes and later spent for assets made to lay idle for so long like the piled garbage bins.
Or, maybe, just maybe, the chair of the City Council Committee on Environment and Natural Resource on his own, can inquire which barangays were recipients of garbage bins delivered in the year 2019. He or she can conduct his/her own visit and from there decide whether this seeming negligence of CENRO people is worth an investigation by the SP Environment body.
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We read this post on Facebook. Senate President Sen. Miguel Zubiri announces a P50,000 inflation assistance to employees of the Senate.
Wow! That was one bold announcement that is a form of serious injustice. Employees of the Senate are already known to be better paid than the other workers in government and private institutions. And they are to be given a whooping amount to tide them over while inflation is high?
In another Facebook post and a news item in a national television newscast the other day, it said that financial assistance for every deserving Filipino is mulled by Congress to help the prospective recipient cope with high inflation in the country.
Well, it does not even need an average brain to understand the difference between the two announcements.
