BAGUIO CITY?A special city council session called on Friday to address the city?s mounting garbage expenses has ended in a standoff.

But the city government has opted to use whatever remains of its P5 million in calamity funds instead of hauling out two weeks worth of garbage to a commercial landfill in Tarlac before the city is hit by more rains, Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said on Saturday.

The city had already collected garbage and debris from the recent typhoon here, but trucks ferrying refuse had been stalled at the city outskirts because the council would not appropriate P25 million to pay a Tarlac landfill operator, said Cordelia Lacsamana, city environment officer.

During last week?s council session, five councilors said the proposed garbage hauling allocation would be better spent on barangay recycling projects.

Baguio has been shipping out garbage since April 2008 because its only dump in Barangay Irisan was closed last year.

The city generates up to 300 tons of garbage daily and some councilors estimate that the government had spent up to P100 million in trucking and commercial landfill expenses since the start of the year.

Councilor Fred Bagbagen, one of the six councilors who opposed the allocation, said they reviewed all council resolutions directing the government to focus on the development of an ecological landfill, as well as materials recovery facilities (MRFs or staging areas for recycling) in the city?s villages.

He said none of these projects took off.

Lacsamana said a landfill area had been identified but acquiring environmental clearance and physical development would take another three years.

?While we wait [for the landfill] to be built, we can?t wait for garbage to [pile up] on the streets,? she said.

City health officials said uncollected garbage would result in diseases, and the government is using this declaration to access the calamity funds to proceed with garbage hauling.