BACOLOD City Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran has requested Mayor Evelio Leonardia to reorganize the solid waste enforcement unit to monitor the illegal dumping of garbage in 61 barangays.
“The solid waste enforcement unit will be tasked to penalize the violators in waste segregation in compliance of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act,” Familiaran said.
Familiaran, also chairman of Solid Waste Action Team (Swat), said the enforcement unit, which is composed of about 200 members, will be dispatched 24 hours in various barangays.
He added that violators will pay P500 for the first offense, 1,000 and 2,000 for the second and third offenses, respectively, or do the community service.
In 2018, the city government implemented the “no segregation, no collection” policy, but the program was a failure because residents are still not observing the proper ways of disposing.
Familiaran admitted that most of the city residents are not complying with the waste segregation and that Bacolod is still zero in terms of compliance.
He said based on the report of the garbage hauler IPM-Construction and Development Corp. (IPM-CDC) majority of the households in various villages have no compliance.
“Supposedly, the IPM-CDC will not collect the unsegregated waste, but because of health issue they continued collecting the unsegregated wastes. We need the cooperation of everybody for this program,” he added.
Familiaran noted that they already monitored some areas with rampant of illegal dumping of garbage.
These are along Abada Escay Relocation Site in Barangay Vista Alegre, Barangays 10 and 12 or an areas with vacant lot.
To address the problem, Familiaran said that they will put two or three garbage bins in Barangay Vista Alegre.
“I am hopeful that all the barangay officials will also cooperate and educate their constituents on waste segregation,” he said.
In January, Familiaran also held a meeting with the barangay officials and reiterated his request to practice the waste segregation policy. (MAP)