• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The Bacolod Environment and Natural Resources Office (BENRO) is struggling to streamline its waste management services due to a surge in prank calls targeting its emergency hotline.
City Administrator Atty. Mark Steven Mayo said on Wednesday that while the BENRO command center strives to verify every report, the sheer volume of ‘fake’ complaints has caused a backlog in their response time.
The issue has reached a point where BENRO teams are often deployed to specific locations to verify a report, only to find no garbage at the site.
The wild goose chases waste valuable time and resources, preventing personnel from attending to residents with genuine missed pick-ups.
He added that even legitimate complaints require a thorough verification process, which is now being slowed down by the need to filter out deceptive callers.
The city administrator appealed to the public for patience and understanding regarding delayed responses.*
