THE city's Regulatory and Complaint Board (RCB) is willing to extend its mandate to help monitor the implementation of the city-wide regulation of single-use plastics in markets and stores, as it will take full effect on January 1, 2019.
Lawyer Edgardo Uy, head of the RCB, said December 28, that although originally, the board's mandate did not include enforcing the plastic regulation, but just like the city's anti-smoking task force they are often tasked to help.
"While the RCB is not directly mandated to implement the eco bag ordinance, we will be actively dipping our fingers into it, much like what the RCB is doing in the Smoke Free CDO Task Force," he said.
The plastic regulation was based on the Article 9, Section 30 of City Ordinance No. 13378-2018 or the "Integrated Ecobiological Solid Waste Management Ordinance of Cagayan de Oro City".
Uy said that the RCB was created in 1979 to regulate the operation of movie houses and other places of amusement, which later the ordinance created it was amended in 1994.
"RCB's mandate became expanded as it had to regulate gambling houses, lodging houses, and similar establishments," he added.
Recently, the RCB was busy inspecting firecracker and pyrotechnic stores in the city, seeing to it that the vendors complied with special permits and safety mechanisms.
On December 28, the board was able to reprimand two underage children selling firecrackers, which was not allowed by law.