EDITORIAL - Sardines for breakfast, lunch and dinner

If it is any consolation to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, he is indeed a man who never stops thinking of things to do and to innovate. Some of his plans work and some don't. He is now toying with the idea of giving out cans of sardines to city residents who take their own garbage to waiting garbage trucks instead of hiring more garbage loaders do the work. Will the plan work? Let's see.

How much the city will spend if it hires additional garbage loaders is up in the air. One, it is not known how many loaders are needed if and when the city does hire them. Two, it is not known either how much the city will pay each loader - will it be the minimum wage, or will it be much lower, like rates received by job order employees, who the Philippine government regards as people who do not deserve to be bestowed employer-employee status.

One thing is certain. A can of local sardines now costs anywhere from P13.75 to P22.50 depending on the brand, the style of preparation, the can itself (easy to open or not easy to open), and where you buy it (public market, sari-sari store or supermarket). Of course, Osmeña can buy it cheaper from the manufacturer if in bulk. He can even go for much less if he opts for the slightly damaged at source. A person throwing garbage will not be finicky about a dent in the can.

What may not be too certain is how many cans of sardines might the city expect to give away for each truck. While the capacity of each truck is definite, say, one ton, there is no specific weight or volume defining how much garbage a person may take to a garbage truck. A person who wants to eat sardines for an entire month may divide his garbage accordingly. Instead of putting all his garbage in one big black bag, he may use 30 smaller bags. And that is just one person.

If the practice catches on and an increasingly greater number of people are introduced to a steady diet of sardines, it might get to a point where it becomes necessary to determine if such a diet does not have some effect on a person's health. Good if there is no ill effect detected. But if there is, then that can surely complicate things, both health-wise and legally.

Then there is also the expected increase in the number of empty cans to dispose of. It is not impossible to see the day when all that people will be throwing away will be empty sardine cans, to be exchanged of course with even more sardine cans. And good if none of the empty sardine cans ends up in some canal or waterway, there to clog things up and cause even more floods.

It is said that Osmeña got this trash-for-sardines idea from Brazil, only that in that country eggs are given away instead of sardines. It is not clear which would have been better, eggs or sardines. Brazil, by the way, is also where Osmeña got his BRT idea, which is now about to be foisted on the Cebuanos. Nobody knows why Osmeña seems very fixated on that country for ideas. But if this sardine idea takes off, the city could end up spending more than if it merely hired those loaders.