MAJORITY of the village officials in Bacolod City said are ready for the implementation of the “no segregation, no collection” policy starting Friday, September 1.
Barangay 13 chieftain Tanya Familiaran, vice president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, said: “We already discussed this although we cannot perfect it immediately, but we will strictly enforce this in our barangays (villages) to avoid penalties.”
The village officials started their information dissemination among their constituents last month.
“We held several meetings with our constituents to inform them of their obligations in this campaign,” Familiaran said.
She said that in 2012, Bacolod started the implementation of the waste segregation policy and most of the villages were also compliant.
“It is long overdue, and it is time for the city to implement waste segregation,” she added.
Familiaran along with the chieftains and representatives of the 60 village Wednesday attended the final meeting with the Solid Waste Action Team (Swat), Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the supplier of the shredding machines at the Bacolod Government Center.
The village officials signified their support and they also asked the assistance of the City Government to monitor and arrest the violators, especially those who engage in illegal dumping.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Swat, said the village officials are the frontliners in the implementation of waste segregation.
“If we have discipline, we could achieve our goal to manage the waste segregation. With the policy, garbage collectors will not pick up unsegregated waste from households or business establishments,” he said.
The City Government purchased 14 units of shredding machines worth P5 million (not P8 million as earlier reported) from the RU Foundry and Machine Shop Corp., which is also based in Bacolod.
Bids and Awards Committee Secretariat head Gilda Lluisma said Joel Telmoso, sales representative of RU Foundry, admitted that he wrongly announced the total purchase amount to the media Tuesday.
She said the bid amount of the RU Foundry is only P4.998 million for the 14 units of shredding machines.
The vice mayor said the shredding machines will be distributed to the interested villages, which need to submit a proposal.
Familiaran said the proposals of villages Cabug, Alangilan, and Pahanocoy are already approved.
He said the villages have a big role in the implementation of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
On the first day of the implementation, Familiaran said they will issue warnings to violators, but for the next offense, violators will be fined from P500 to P1,000.