BAGUIO CITY — Baguio City’s long-awaited modern waste facility of its own is practically on the way, as Mayor Mauricio Domogan has directed the city engineering office to submit official estimates and proposal for the construction of a road leading to the proposed location of its own Engineered Sanitary Landfill (ESL).
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday, Domogan revealed the envisioned road from Baguio to the planned ESL in a lot in Itogon, Benguet was estimated to cost PHP 31 million.
He said the Baguio City government has to construct a road, which the city could use solely for its garbage trucks to reach the planned ESL.
“We are nearing the realization of our ESL,” Domogan said.
At the same time, the Baguio mayor said the official documents that would officially let the city government go ahead with its planned ESL are almost done and are just waiting to be signed by the parties concerned.
The city government of Baguio is eyeing to build its own ESL in a 24.11-hectare land owned by Benguet Corporation, one of the country’s oldest mining firms and founded in August 1903.
In 2008, the mining firm offered the use of its open pit called “Antamok 440” in Itogon, Benguet for an ESL to help address the garbage problem of Baguio City and its neighboring towns inside Benguet province, namely Itogon, Sablan, La Trinidad, Tuba, and Tublay.
Domogan said the Deed of Usufruct, a document stating that Benguet Corporation allows Baguio City to use the lot at no cost for the proposed ESL, is now in the final drafting phase.
It will be signed in a simple formal ceremony between the city government and the Benguet Corporation, the mayor said.
“I have already signed it (the final draft of the agreement),” he told PNA, but added, “I just have two corrections”, which he wants to be fixed in the final copy that will, later on, be signed by the parties.
Domogan also disclosed that the city government is asking the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to exclude the proposed ESL site within Benguet Corporation’s property from the declared Upper Agno River watershed protected area.
“I think that the proclamation (of a watershed) applies to alienable and disposable (A and D) lands,” he said, adding it might be impossible to declare the open pit mine as a protected area, since it has been titled to Benguet Corporation for many years. He said proclaiming the site as a protected area could be an infringement of the owner’s rights to the property.
Baguio has long been bugged by its garbage problem. The city has spent over PHP1.2 billion in a span of 10 years just to haul out its garbage to a private ESL in Capaz, Tarlac.
In the early part of this year, the city government transferred the dumping to an ESL in Urdaneta, Pangasinan, which is nearer to Baguio, reducing hauling cost.
Domogan said establishing the Baguio’s own modern waste facility is one of the city’s priorities. (Liza Agoot/PNA)
