SC ruling guides Baguio’s planned environmental fee hike

BAGUIO CITY—A 2015 Supreme Court ruling that struck down Quezon City’s garbage fee ordinance is guiding Baguio City’s proposed environmental fees, with local lawmakers seeking to ensure that new charges for garbage collection, wastewater management and tourism are fair, equitable and legally defensible.

The city council resumed deliberations on June 29 on proposed amendments to the Baguio Environment Code and sanitation ordinances that would increase household garbage collection fees from P20 to P100 a month, impose a wastewater regulatory fee equivalent to 16 percent of a household’s water consumption and collect a P100 environmental user fee from visitors, including tourists.

Councilor Peter Fianza, a lawyer and former city administrator, said the council has been using the Supreme Court ruling in Jose Ferrer Jr. v. Herbert Bautista (G.R. No. 210551, June 30, 2015) as a guide in crafting the proposed ordinances.

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The high court ruled that Quezon City’s garbage fees were unconstitutional because they imposed uniform charges without considering the volume of waste generated by individual households. Fianza said Baguio intends to avoid the same legal pitfall by ensuring that fees are reasonable, equitable and proportionate to the amount of waste produced.

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“We wouldn’t want households to pay garbage fees at the same rate imposed on commercial establishments,” Fianza told the Inquirer. He said the council has asked the city finance committee to submit a detailed profile of waste generated by households and businesses before finalizing the rates.

Waste management

The proposed fees are intended to finance Baguio’s solid and liquid waste management programs, particularly the rehabilitation of its aging, Japan-built sewage treatment plant, which can no longer treat all wastewater discharged into the Balili River. Baguio sits at the headwaters of the Balili River and three other river systems.

According to a 2019 urban carrying capacity study, the city exceeded its solid waste management threshold in 2002, liquid waste treatment capacity in 2008, and available land for development—including space suitable for a sanitary landfill—in 2012.

The city also continues to shoulder rising waste disposal costs. In 2025 alone, it spent P220.89 million hauling residual waste to private sanitary landfills outside the city. Former General Services Office head Eugene Buyucan said Baguio has relied on landfills in Pangasinan, Pampanga and Tarlac for the past decade.

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Circular economy

Baguio’s old open dumpsite, which had operated since the 1970s, was permanently closed after it collapsed during a 2012 storm, prompting the issuance of a “writ of kalikasan” that ordered its shutdown.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong has since championed a circular economy approach that emphasizes waste reduction and recycling, including converting plastic waste into fuel for cement plants. He has also ruled out establishing a sanitary landfill within the city, saying Baguio lacks both the land and the terrain needed for one.

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The city’s latest waste characterization study showed that biodegradable waste accounts for 35 percent of daily garbage, residual waste for 31.8 percent, and recyclable materials for 29.5 percent.

Under the proposal, households would pay P100 a month, or P1,200 annually, while business establishments would be charged according to the volume of waste they generate. Hotels with up to 25 rooms, for example, would pay P750 monthly, while those with up to 75 rooms would pay P1,250.

The city’s 128 barangays have endorsed the proposed household garbage fee. Councilor Paolo Salvosa said barangays would automatically receive 50 percent of garbage fee collections in recognition of their role in enforcing waste management programs.

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Still, Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan and several councilors have pushed for lower rates, arguing that the fees must remain affordable and within residents’ ability to pay while complying with the standards laid down by the Supreme Court. INQ