Metropolitan Arrangements - Philippine Institute for Development ...

88 ManagingUrbanizationUndera DecentralizedGovernanceFramework
the principle that solid waste management is not the sole responsibility
of the local government but is rather a shared obligation with the
community. This involved user fees and was therefore initially met
strong opposition. However, because the city government showed its
sincerity in pushing forth this program, the people were convinced
and themselves took the program seriously. In the removal of the US
bases in 1991 and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, the city took on an
even greater challenge of maintaining and improving the city's
environmental condition as a major strategy in attracting investors.
Table 5 summarizes the innovative features of the program.
The city's solid waste management program has been financially
serf-sustaining in the first two years of the program through income
derived from garbage fees. As shown in Table 6, the city has a net
income of about P1.4 million during the first year of the program
and more than P500,000 during the second year. From 1992 until
1996, the city incurred more expen-ses than income derived from
garbage fees, reaching about P5.7 million in net loss in 1996. The
expenditure increase over these years was due to the provision of
benefits under the Salary Standardization Law and the hiring of more
SWM personnel as demand for services grew with increased
population. One will note that garbage fee collection dwindled in
1991 to 1993 because of population loss brought by outmigration
from the city following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the removal
of the US bases. Thereafter, population grew again (attributed to
returning residents and migration from areas displaced by the
calamity) side by side with the flurry of development activities and
projects in the city with the installation under the Subic Bay
Metropolitan Authority.
The increasing expenditure of the city for solid waste
management and the relatively small hike in the income derived from
garbage fees gave the SWM program budget a deficit since 1.992 and
contributed to the total city budget deficit since 1995. To raise
revenues, new ordinances to amend the 1989 program of fees for
garbage collection and use of landfill site were issued in 1997. The
mayor consulted the people with these new rates: from P10-20 to
P30-40 for households and from P30-P300 to P50-P500 for business
establishments.