South Road Properties team’s ‘smell test’

Monday, October 20, 2008
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter

AT the corner of one of the access roads in Cebu City’s South Road Properties (SRP) is a sign that welcomes visitors to the Hollywood of Asia.

But with the garbage dumpsite visible from the Bigfoot Entertainment complex and the overwhelming stench reaching its premises, it’s in stark contrast to the Hollywood in Los Angeles, California.

City officials are aware of the problem and have started to act on it, SRP Management Office head Nagiel Bañacia said.

This week, City Hall will make an emergency purchase of filling materials and aggregates that will be used to cover the garbage dumped in the Inayawan sanitary landfill, to eliminate the odor.

Tree-planting activities have also been initiated around the dump site to cover the mountains of garbage that accumulated there.

Worse when it rains

Bañacia admits the garbage facility is one of the negative factors affecting the marketability of the 302-hectare SRP.

Rodel Mancao, a security guard at the Bigfoot Entertainment complex, said they have gotten used to the stench, which worsens during heavy rains.

“Basta muuwan na gani, unya dad-on sa habagat diri ang baho, hastang baho-a gyud lagi. Sa kadugayan naanad na man lang mi, ambot lang kaha sa mga tag-iya diri na mga foreigner pero siguro ko nakabantay na sad na sila (When it rains and the winds carry the smell here, it really stinks. We are getting used to it, but I don’t know about the owners),” he told Sun.Star Cebu.

The Bigfoot complex is separated from the landfill by the General Services Office (GSO) maintenance compound. A wire fence separates the landfill from the GSO.

Bigfoot president and chief executive officer Michael Gleissner has so far paid P25 million for a 25-year lease agreement on a two-hectare lot there.

A barangay intelligence network (BIN) guard on duty at the GSO said they are lucky if the garbage is topped with aggregates, which does not happen every day these days because of a shortage in filling materials.

“Usahay matabunan, so mawala ra ang baho pero sunod adlaw mubaho na sad. Anad na mi anang bahoa diri, mura na lang ug wala, dili lang mi muangal pero ang mga mamalitay diri, mureklamo gyud sa kabaho (Sometimes they cover the garbage and on those days, it’s not so bad, but the next day, the stench returns. We no longer complain, but I’m sure the prospective buyers will),” Gaudencio Manresa said.

His colleague at the Sugbu Building in Kawit Island said the stench reaches the SRP administrative building, several kilometers away from the Bigfoot property beside Pond A.

Bañacia said that Bigfoot officials earlier raised the problem, and the City has since acted on it.

Once completed, the Bigfoot Entertainment property will have four 1,200-square meter soundstages like those in Hollywood in Los Angeles, production offices, Hollywood suites, a crafts and sets shop and a fabrication building.

It is also planning to purchase 16 hectares of land for their expansion projects, which will include an executive hotel, administration offices, specialty restaurants and cafe, a spa, swimming pool, nature park and a mini-zoo.

City Administrator Francisco Fernandez admitted that interested buyers of SRP lots have raised concern on the proximity of the landfill to the properties they want to buy.

“We’re getting complaints about it, we already got a complaint from Bigfoot and we don’t intend to hide it. The landfill is there and they’ve seen it but we assured them that we intend to eliminate the smell,” he said.

The problem on the stench had Mayor-on-leave Tomas Osmeña worrying over it even while he was in the hospital just hours before his surgery.

“That was his concern before and after his operation, so definitely we will address the issue. The heavy rains damaged the internal roads, that is why we couldn’t transport the soil cover to the area. But we will solve that this week,” Fernandez said yesterday.

He admitted, though, that these are only short-term solutions.

The City intends to get a private firm to manage the landfill, which will include measures to eliminate the stench.

Fernandez said they are now talking to three private firms, including those that are managing the dump sites in Payatas and Montalban in Metro Manila.

The long-term solution would be the proposed transfer of the landfill to Barangay Kalunasan, which is still being evaluated by City Hall and barangay officials, he added.