A TOP official of the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) has expressed his dismay over the non-compliance of some malls here on the plastic regulation ordinance.

Clenro chief Engineer Armen Cuenca said he was surprised that the malls still gave out plastic sando bags to its customers during the first three days of the implementation of the no plastic regulation.

Cuenca said during the information dissemination period in 2018, the malls were the first who expressed their support to the campaign.

"We were wondering why all of a sudden, they refused to implement and still gave plastics to their customers, when we had several meetings last year discussing about the new regulations", Cuenca said.

He added, that the mall's cooperation is vital in the success of the campaign, since malls are major producers of plastic sando bags.

In a meeting with the mall management, Cuenca said the mall managers turned to a certain section of the ordinance as their basis for refusing to implement.

The section states that the plastic bag regulation shall only be implemented during Wednesdays and Fridays.

But, Cuenca pointed out that the Wednesdays and Fridays schedule was only set for the dry run of the regulation.

"Maybe they got confused but that schedule was only meant for the dry run, but the implementation which started last January 1 should be every day," he said.

Cuenca said he aims to remove the particular section with the help of the City Council, and hope that malls will implement immediately without excuses.

"We just hope for their cooperation because we are doing this for our Mother Earth, and for the next generation," he added.

On day three since it was implemented, Clenro monitored a total of 97 violators, including the malls.

As of Friday, January 4, however, 74 establishments already complied.

Clenro, meanwhile, will issue notices of violations to the non-compliant business entities.