CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The continuous call of the residents of Cagayan de Oro has finally been addressed as the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (CLENRO) confirmed that the local government has a new garbage collector. Engr. Armen Cuenca, CLENRO head, said the joint venture of Jomara Konstruckt Corporation/Tencil Construction Incorporated will now manage the garbage collection in the city in collaboration with CLENRO. The Jomara Konstruckt Corporation is a Cebu-based company, while Tencil Construction Incorporated is based in this city. The Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the city government awarded the new contract on Thursday, March 23. Cuenca was still not sure if the contract had already been signed by the contractor. Because of numerous concerns from the residents here, the garbage collection by the new collector has already started on Friday, one day after the BAC awarded the contract. For the meantime, the city government has followed the old schedule for garbage collection: every morning for the national highways, public markets, and other urban areas here, and twice a week for every barangay. However, to provide a much more convenient service, the CLENRO and the new garbage collector are already in discussion to possibly change the schedule. The local government did not renew the contract of the city’s previous garbage collector, the IPM Waste CDO, because of some problems in the garbage collection raised by the residents. Cuenca said the new contractor has 47 brand-new trucks available for collection, and five more are arriving this week. The remaining units, on the other hand, are already scheduled for delivery from China. One of the requirements of the city government for the new collector is to have 70 units of trucks, of which the majority should be brand new. Cuenca urged residents to properly place their garbage in their respective houses, as they were working to fix the garbage backlogs in the city within a week.