Microsoft’s Encarta Dictionary defines compactor as a “machine that compresses garbage: a machine used in the home to compress garbage into small bundles for easy disposal.” If only a dictionary definition can solve Tagbilaran’s horrible garbage ordeal, there would have been no need for City Mayor Baba Yap to appeal for people’s understanding as the City braces for the worst garbage crisis in known history, considering that his new administration has been gifted with mountains of garbage headaches courtesy of former city mayor Dan Lim’s leadership. And then two garbage compactors came, and behold, our monumental garbage woes would be finally compressed into small bundles of worries. In fact, Mayor Yap believes so. In his inaugural speech delivered last Friday during the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s (SP) regular session, the hopeful mayor, in assuaging people’s pain caused by uncollected garbage, said:

“Our worsening garbage woes will very soon come to an end with the arrival of the 2 new garbage compactors which will very soon be deployed! Not only that, we are also presently considering the purchase of more garbage trucks to alleviate our garbage concerns.”

The “worsening garbage woes,” as Yap puts it, may come to an end, but not the controversy now surrounding the two petite garbage compactors delivered before ex-mayor Lim vacated City Hall on June 30.

According to City Administrator Edi Borja, as quoted by media interviews, Commission on Audit (COA) officials have asked the new city administration not to use the two garbage compactors, reportedly bought at a handsome price of P17 million, because the two compactors are ripe for no-nonsense investigation. Without proper documents attesting the legality of the purchase, the COA said, the two compactors cannot be registered with the Land Transportation Office (LTO), and without an LTO thumbs-up sign, these two compactors are better off put in “safe mode status.” But since the garbage crisis is already beyond compare, if there is such a term, Mayor Yap has been left without a choice but to utilize the untouched compactors last Friday. He has reported to the people of Tagbilaran that there are only two garbage trucks, out of 20, that can embalm people’s garbage woes. The rest of the garbage trucks have long been candidates for another episode of cannibalization, or maybe they just need an immediate repair?

Just the same, the new administration of Mayor Yap is believed to have been sabotaged, as some political pundits would like to believe. How can former City Hall officials afford to wait for this garbage misery to arise, affecting and torturing not few but all of us, considering that the City Government has a whooping P800 million budget for 2013? Only the ex-city mayor, city treasurer, and city budget officer may have the right answer only known to them. The big budget figure may appear comforting, but the truth of the matter is, as what Mayor Yap had announced last Friday in his inaugural speech at the SP session, the “City Treasury is profusely bleeding.” Not only the City Government’s finances are in limbo, Mayor Yap’s administration is also “lost in transition” when they have not received any financial statements from the previous occupants of City Hall. Then came along the two controversial compactors, each costing P8.5 million. And COA does not want these compactors to hit the road in tamed speed. Indeed, bad things can happen to good mayors.