Baguio

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BAGUIO CITY – SEVERAL MEMBERS OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND MEDIA here agreed to build a citizen action group to help monitor, report on and engage their local government for better governance in the city.

In their first meeting with the Citizen Action Network for Accountability (CANA) September 25, the group, which is yet to pick its name, said citizens here are concerned with the city’s worsening garbage problem despite the local government’s allotment of about PhP 214 million for waste management.

They said that people know very little on how the city government spends these funds, and see that the garbage problem is getting nowhere but worse. In 2011, for instance, the ‘trash-slide’ in the Irisan dumpsite killed six people. The city spends about PhP 8 million monthly just to haul its garbage to the landfill in Urdaneta, Pangasinan, yet in some areas within the city, people already have to wear masks to keep out the stench of garbage.

“Is the PhP 214 million budget for solid waste management being used properly and is there room for improvement?” asks Judy Carino of the Tebtebba Foundation, one of the civil society groups who signified joining the citizen action group.


Also joining the citizen watchdog group are members of the Northern Dispatch Weekly, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Baguio Chapter, environmental group Baguio Vermi Growers, and other concerned individuals.

The group said they also want to have more access to information on status and fund sourcing of city government projects, land use management and procurement, and where they could take part as citizens to actively monitor these.

Earlier, the same organizations led a one-day forum at the University of the Philippines Baguio to discuss challenges in understanding and monitoring public budget for solid waste management in the city. The forum gathered representatives from civil society, media, faith-based groups, business and city government.