Thursday, June 21, 2007 Speak out: Clean Mactan By Myrna Sevillano Moshis Pacific Villa 1, Pajac, Lapu-Lapu City
WE, concerned homeowners and residents of Pacific Villa I in Barangay Pajac would like to address the ever-worsening dismal condition brought about by the indiscriminate dumping of garbage on just about every piece of empty lot in these areas.
In this day and age of sorting one’s garbage, it is utterly despicable to see mounds of waste that are periodically being burned.
Being poor should not be an excuse for living dirty.
All of us must contribute and discipline ourselves to do something, anything to keep our environment clean.
If we don’t do it now, our children’s children will be living in filth and litter will be the only thing they see.
Health for our children and for all of us must be guarded and preserved.
It is unbelievable that in a city as big as Lapu-Lapu, many don’t have toilets and access to running water.
They relieve themselves in plastic bags that are thrown in empty lots.
Why can’t Clean and Green workers pick up the litter strewn around instead of merely tilling grass?
Why are available garbage cans not utilized? Why are they stacked in one place? Are they for decoration?
Each barangay should have at least two large-capacity garbage containers for biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.
Barangay tanods must enforce the law on littering without exception and must be consistent in doing so.
We are promoting tourism, so let us not leave them with memories of how dirty our place is or how garbage smell wafts in the air.
Why can’t Mactan be truly clean and green like, say, Bacolod in Negros Occidental?
Even from a landing plane, one can already see there how green the city center is.
And in the rural outskirts, garbage is not indiscriminately thrown or dumped.
That is an example that society doesn’t have to be solely made up of rich people in order for its surrounding to be clean.
What is apparent here is the will and discipline of the local government in the area and of the people in general (regardless of their economies status) to earn the right to be called clean and green.
The bottom line is, something effective must be done.
With upscale subdivisions being built one after the other and paying taxes religiously, one should therefore not be subjected everyday to the sight and stench of improperly disposed garbage.
Mactan is beautiful, so let us all be proud of it. We should take care of it so it does not become a landfill.
Let us be an example of one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the Philippines.
