City Council junks total plastic ban

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Council has junked the proposed amendments of City Ordinance 2343 prohibiting the use of plastic bags every day within the jurisdiction of the city.

The city, at present, is implementing a plastic ban on Wednesdays and Saturdays, as provided for under the existing ordinance titled “An ordinance regulating the use and sale of plastic shopping bags every Saturday of a week within the territorial jurisdiction of the City of Cebu and prescribing penalties for violations thereof.”

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia failed to convince the other legislators, specifically those allied with Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) that dominated the City Council at present, about his proposal.

Councilors who voted against were Eugenio Gabuya Jr., Mary Ann Delos Santos, Sisinio Andales, Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, Alvin Arcilla, Joy Augustus Young including the ex-officio members Franklyn Ong and Jessica Resch.

Aside from Garcia, the councilors who favored were David Tumulak, Joel Garganera, Eduardo Rama and Pastor “Jun” Alcover.

Councilors Jocelyn Pesquera and Jerry Guardo abstained in the voting.

Young said the council members have to know what happens to the existing ordinance detailing its impact to the city before amending the existing legislation.

“Those are valid points, but unfortunately I don’t have the data on that. I only asked for their comments and observations for this particular ordinance, the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO) and the environment committee of this august body and I had the privilege to roam around and asked business owners,” Garcia said.

He added that there are positions papers from various stakeholders submitted to his office about the matter which were presented in the council earlier, adding his proposed amendments are just the first step of totally banning the use of plastic.

“Perhaps we can ask CCENRO for a report on this particular ordinance after that. Because, in the future, this is not only what we are going to look into, this is just shopping plastic bags, we are going to single use of plastics, we will go through Styrofoam, we will go through a lot,” Garcia added.

Young said the first step to ban the use of plastic bags is to conduct consultation and make a study about it.

Aside from banning the use of plastic shopping bags, Garcia is also proposing to amend the title of the ordinance which will read as “Plastic Regulation Ordinance of the City of Cebu.”

He also stated that Section 8 of the ordinance mandates the business establishments with cashier lanes to provide “green lane” which prioritizes customers who bring their own eco or reusable bags.

Even though she abstained in the voting, Pesquera is not amenable with it since banning the plastic bags every day will encourage paper bags producers to cut more trees.

“I am not amenable in making it every day because in my observation instead of using plastic bags, they will use the paper bags. With all the number of paper bags that have been consumed, we are like encouraging to cut more trees,”Pesquera said.

Garcia answered that his legislative measure would never encourage people to destroy the environment by cutting more trees.

He said the salient feature of his proposed amendments is to educate the people to bring their own eco-friendly shopping bags.

Garganera, who is the former chairperson of the council committee on environment, is in favor of Garcia’s move, stating that it will help the environment by instilling discipline to the public.

Rama said it is a good start to at least reduce the plastic waste specifically in coastal areas and in rivers. (FREEMAN)