21,000 kilos of trash fetched in 4 hours

CEBU, Philippines —  Volunteers from the Cebu City government collected at least 21 tons of garbage during the first river cleanup of the new administration in Guadalupe River yesterday.

Thousands of volunteers joined the cleanup that ran from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. in eight different stations along the river, which are Sandayong Bridge, Haarlemmermeer City Bridge, M. Velez Bridge, B. Rodriguez Bridge, P. Del Rosario Bridge, Guadalupe Bridge, Sanciangko Bridge, and Topaz Bridge.

Mayor Edgardo Labella thanked all the volunteers and City Hall workers who participated in the cleanup, saying there will be more to come in his administration.

“Pwerte gyung hugawa (It was really dirty). You can see the protruding pipes from households nga gihimong agi-anan sa hugaw (used to dispose of their wastes),” Labella told reporters.

“There should be a vigorous policy that litter should be prevented from going back to the rivers. Magpatawag ta og meeting sa mga barangay captains on Tuesday. All 80 barangay captains,” he added.

The mayor said the waters under M. Velez, B. Rodriguez, and Forbes bridges were the dirtiest portions of the Guadalupe River.

Labella said he will ask the barangays for assistance in monitoring the residents’ sanitary practices.

He also warned that the city can impose administrative sanctions if barangay officials will not perform their mandates under the Local Government Code.

The City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) will be tasked to identify those residents whose wastewaters end up in the river, he said. The office will also educate the residents on the laws that prohibit them from indiscriminately throwing their garbage into the river.

Labella also said the city will assess the capability of these residents to construct their own toilets or communal toilets to see if they need help.

Aside from the thousands of City Hall workers, volunteers from the barangays, the Cebu City Police Office, and Bureau of Fire Protection-7 also joined the cleanup yesterday.

“Uban ta sa kausaban sa kasapaan. Uban ta sa kausaban sa katubigan. Mao na atong battlecry niini (Let us go together in changing our rivers’ landscape, to clean our waters. That’s our battlecry),” the mayor said.

To sustain the cleanliness, Labella said he will call for a meeting with all 80 barangays, identify all residents living along the river, and monitor the river.

CENRO head John Jigo Dacua, for his part, said the caught some people in the act of throwing their trash into the river while the cleanup was ongoing. As a result, they were issued citation tickets by CENRO enforcers.

Dacua said his office is still collating the number of citation tickets issued to violators of environmental laws. — JMD (FREEMAN)