By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan
ILOILO CITY Mayor Jerry Treñas has reassured street sweepers that the city’s new vacuum trucks will complement, not replace, their street-cleaning efforts.
“There will be no [street sweepers] who will lose their jobs. As I have said, their salaries are recurring, whereas the trucks are already there when bought and will only need preventive maintenance. We will no longer add personnel,” Treñas declared during his regular press conference on Monday, March 11.
The P5.8-million sweeper vacuum truck, which had its blessing on Monday morning, was procured by the city government to respond to its growing road network.
The mayor stated that the truck is expected to be deployed along J.M. Basa Street (otherwise known as Calle Real), from Plazoleta Gay to the Museum of Philippine Economic History.
As to the current personnel keeping the streets clean, the mayor said that they would be relocated to other areas of the city.
“We need this sweeper vacuum truck because we now have more roads [like the] Circumferential Road [and the] Sunset Boulevard. We’re going to have more [public] places to clean,” the mayor stated in his press conference.
“These sweeper trucks will be deployed to Calle Real, and our street sweepers can be deployed to other places, to free them from here. Although we may place at least one personnel here because not all areas [in Calle Real] may be cleaned [by the truck],” he added.
He has also instructed City Administrator Melchor Tan to procure spare parts for the truck’s bristles so that it may be ready.
The mayor’s declaration junks the previous pronouncement made by General Services Office (GSO) head Neil Ravena, who stated that the truck was meant to be a replacement for the street sweepers along Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue (Diversion Road).
According to the Facebook page of the supplier, GoldField Motor Sales, based in Mandurriao district, the truck is a Sinotruk 6W Homan H3 Sweeper Truck Euro 5. It is made by the Chinese state-owned China National Heavy Duty Truck Group.
Treñas on his own Facebook page on February 28 first teased about the truck, which has a 9-cubic meter (cu.m.) capacity with a 2 cu.m. water tank and a 7 cu.m. trash bin.
The GSO is also said to be adjusting the water component to make sure that the city will only be using a minimal amount of water.
