Sinulog 2023: Leaner crowd, more garbage

CEBU, Philippines —  Over 180 tons of garbage were collected by Cebu City's Department of Public Services (DPS) in the wake of the Sinulog 2023 revelries, mainly at the South Road Properties.

Despite being able to draw in just about 600,000 spectators at the SRP or more than three times fewer than the 2020 figure of two million, this year’s Sinulog, nonetheless, left about 30 tons more trash than the 131 tons three years ago.

Ramil Ayuman, Mayor Michael Rama's special assistant, reported that 181.4 tons of garbage were collected as of yesterday.

Most of those collected consisted of plastic bottles and food packs, among others.

It took 83 trips for DPS dump trucks to finish collecting the trash around the city.

DPS officer-in-charge John Paul Gelasque, in an interview with The Freeman, said this volume of garbage was collected through 12 noon yesterday.

Gelasque added that aside from their own personnel, they also asked barangays officials to help them out to speed up the cleaning.

“Aside from our personnel, we also asked the help of the barangays since they also have a manpower and naa pud silay dump trucks,” said Gelasque.

But Gelasque emphasized that most of the trash came from the mainland or city proper, and not the SRP itself, which was the new venue of this year's Sinulog.

This came after friends, families and groups also had their own gatherings in both the uptown and downtown areas even as street parties were supposedly not allowed.

Back in 2020, the last time physical Sinulog activities were held before their return this year, then DPS head lawyer Jigo Dacua said that the city collected around 131 tons of garbage after the Sinulog celebration that managed to gather around two million people. — JMD (FREEMAN)