Saturday, September 27, 2008 Students, community asked to take part in cleanup drive in 50 barangays
BARANGAY officials yesterday urged their constituents, particularly students, to participate in the cleanup to be held simultaneously in 50 coastal and urban Cebu City barangays today.
They hope to address the problems of dengue fever and flooding when they clean the streets, creeks, rivers and the shoreline of the city with the help of the community.
In a press conference yesterday, Mambaling Barangay Captain Rodolfo Estela reminded the students to be active in the cleanup activities, and not to just go to their sites for school attendance purposes.
He lamented that this has been the observation of some barangay officials every time they conduct the Coastal and Urban Cleanup.
“Ambot lang unsa gyud ang tumong sa mga estudyante ani. Naay uban magdate ra gyud o magpakita lang na nanambong sila. Dili man gani magdala ug hiramenta. Ang akong hangyo na tinuoron nato ni. Manglimpyo man kaha ta? (Some students will attend today for the wrong reasons. I hope they will take the activity to heart),” Estela told barangay officials and volunteers during the press conference at City Hall.
At 7:30 a.m. today, some shipping lines will have vessels blow their horns to signal the start of the cleanup.
The activity will also be participated in by the Coast Guard, Presidential Security Group, other maritime agencies and government offices. Sixteen schools will also be participating.
Barangay officials appealed to the City Government’s Squatters Prevention and Encroachment Elimination Division to rid the streets of illegal structures, particularly those that block passage to the barangay’s interior roads.
For their part, the village officials pledged to exercise political will in cleaning their barangays, but said the program can only be sustained with the help of the community.
Aside from the city-wide cleanup, follow-up activities are also being conducted in their respective villages every month.
“Atong tabangan ni’ng tanan kay dili man ni kay amo rang problema. Ato ning obligasyon ang pagpanglimpyo, apil na ang mga katawhan (Let us help each other do this. It is our obligation to clean up),” Estela said.
He specifically appealed to the residents of Sitio Alaska in Mambaling to cooperate, after the mayor tagged the place as the dirtiest in the city. (LCR)
