WE do not have any idea whether Davao City Mayor and now Vice Presidential aspirant Sara Duterte-Carpio is aware of this. Her people at City Hall, specifically those at the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) are blatantly wasting the resources of the city.
We are referring to the hundreds of thousands worth of large garbage bins purchased by the local government some time ago. Many of these bins had been allocated to the barangays including those in the rural areas in the third and second districts. Some of the bins were delivered even before the onset of the pandemic in 2020. But up to this late these have not been distributed to specific locations where these large garbage depositories are supposed to be situated and where the waste collectors contracted by the city are to collect the garbage regularly.
But no, the garbage bins are just piled and stocked in specific corners near barangay halls in the recipient villages of the city’s rural areas.
Again why are these bins not distributed? Whose responsibility is the distribution of the bins in the specific areas of the barangay recipients? Is the distribution the responsibility of barangay officials? Is it that of the CENRO’s?
We are asking these questions because for the longest period that the bins are just idly waiting to be used, these material resources are not serving the purpose with which Davao City purchased them.
Such a situation is another case of improperly planned projects on the part of certain officials of the city and the lack of monitoring of the agency at City Hall that is supposed to look into the implementation of such projects as the purchase and distribution of garbage bins.
Yes, the cost of a single bin is perhaps insignificant for a city projected to earn some P12 billion this year based on its approved budget. But simply multiply the per nit cost by the total number of those purchased by the city and one would find out that the total resources wasted is staggering.
Now who would say that the city is not mismanaging some of its resources? For after all, why had the city splurged its money purchasing the garbage bins if it just allows it to lay idle? Or, is it possible that the local government just purchased the receptacles without looking into the number of manpower and vehicles that can collect the deposited garbage on regular basis?
May we call the attention first of the people at the city’s Sanitary inspection unit if they have doubts as to the veracity of our claim. All they have to do is visit a few barangays in the outskirts of Tugbok district like Biao Escuela or Talandang which are both accessible from the city proper. In fact the two are near the city’s sanitary landfill facility in New Carmen located in the same district.
Do we have to take this failure apparently of the CENRO as one case of the city administration’s inability to have some of its less significant projects done as intended as clear inefficiency of those assigned to manage the implementation thereof?
We recommend that the one who is running the day-to-day operation of City Hall looks into this minor yet costly lapse. Giving this a small slice of his or her attention could help the city put its resources into proper use.
**********************************
As of last Monday it was reported by the Department of Health that the number of new CoViD infections in the country reached an alarming high of some thirty thousand. Indeed it is, and the figure is one that should be looked into by our health authorities as a cause of serious concern. But one positive thing in this alarming scenario is that the majority of the infections are mild cases and only a few are considered as serious or critical in nature.
Yes, the possibility is that it is because a significant percentage of the people in the entire country are already vaccinated. In fact some are starting to take their booster shots at inoculation. So, that is one positive side in this surge unlike that of the spike of CoViD cases in the middle of 2021 when patients who were dying were lining up the gates of hospitals. Some who were gasping for breath were inside ambulances or their private vehicles wanting to get admitted to medical facilities.
In Davao City we learned that the number of new infections ballooned to a new high during the last week-end. But one thing we have observed is that our local health authorities seem to have prepared themselves well for the surge.
Hospital facilities and medical manpower remain ready for the situation. The warnings from the City Mayor to the people of the city to follow all health protocols were never stopped. In the process the local officials and health authorities taking cue from the guidelines issued by the national government continued to be on top of the pandemic situation.
Now, it is up to us people of the city to decide whether we want to be vulnerable to the new surge or get ourselves out of harm’s way. The government and health authorities are asking not much from us. All they wanted from us is to just follow or observe the health protocols. Simply put, we need to have some discipline in the conduct of our daily lives.
