BACOLOD City submitted the list of barangays that violated the waste segregation policy to the Environment Management Board of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the imposition of the penalty, reported by the Philippine News Agency.
The Bacolod local government units identified 24 villages that violated the “no segregation, no collection” policy relative to the implementation of Republic Act 9003 or Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
The problem is that this news was way back on January 31, 2018, or a year ago.
This time, SunStar Bacolod reported that 45 village chiefs in the city attended a two-day seminar on solid waste management seminar in Makati City from February 3 to 4, 2009.
Whoa, that seminar came after one year. We are not even talking of enforcement but education and information drives.
“This seminar is a big help to our barangay officials for the implementation of the RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000,” said Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran.
Get this. RA 9003 was enacted on January 26, 2001, or 18 years ago.
By this time, barangay officials should have known their ABCs of ecological solid waste management, as stipulated in the law. These are the development planning, traffic and transport management, health and sanitation, urban protection and pollution control, urban renewal, zoning and land use planning and shelter services, and solid waste disposal and management public safety.
Ignorance of the law excuses no one. Yet how many barangay captains display their ignorance? How many segregated biodegradables from non-biodegradables? Recycled or reused PET bottles? Disposed plastic wastes? Enforced anti-trash burning?
By now, these barangay officials should be back in Bacolod. Their proof and absorption are not their certificates of attendance but how well they implement these state policies.
(bqsanc@yahoomail.com)