Osmeña mulls sardines for trash program

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is giving out sardines to every resident of the city that loads garbage directly to the compactor truck.

The mayor is making Barangay Lahug a pilot area in this experiment that he copied from Brazil. Osmeña said that instead of hiring additional garbage loaders the city government will just use the fund to finance the experiment.

“This is an experiment. We are going to try it now. If it works, we’ll give up sardinas to everybody,” Osmeña told reporters.

Osmeña said he thought of the idea to address the concern of the people in the barangays about some garbage trucks that are not regularly collecting their garbage.  

“We will start small and if this would be successful, we will expand it,” Osmeña said.

Department of Public Services chief Roberto Cabarubias said the mayor copied the model from Brazil.

“This will be a model in Brazil ang ila didto magdala basura sa compactor dayon load basura hatagan sila’g itlog. Every time mo-load sila’g compactor there is one egg. Duha ka bag two eggs,” Cabarubias said.

Osmeña opened up the idea to Cabarubias after his recent medical checkup in America.

Cabarubias, however, said that the city needs to repair its compactor trucks because most of these are already unserviceable. He said they need technicians to repair the trucks.

“Mao nay pag-meeting namo ni mayor amo siyang giingnan nga ang atong compactor out of service daghan electrical nga ayuhonon. Duna may technician nato wa ma renew ang contract, ni-suggest ko i-rehire,” he said.

The technician is expected to report back today after Osmeña approved the recommendation. Cabarubias believes that the experiment would be successful.

“Mga tawo nga wala kaayo’y pangita, way sud-an, instead manguha ipatimbang dugay pa, maypa’g mokuha og basura ilabay ngadto sa compactor duna na siyay sardinas,” he said.

The experiment is expected to be launched within the week or next week. (FREEMAN)