IT’S an image of desperation: poor volunteers wading on black water infested by the city’s most unimaginable waste, rotting rodents and whatnot. If you don’t throw up, it throws you back to some dark, benighted time of human slavery—all for cans of sardines, an utterly condescending, shameless token for tasks no one would ever dream of doing.
These volunteers, whose poor lives are brother to these rivers, misses to see the tragedy they are in. And it takes the most mindless supervision of the food-for-work program of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO) to have allowed these men and women off into dirty water to clean up the rivers.
Without provisions, the volunteers may have thought the works needed to be done anyway, so they could claim the due food packs. Unfortunately, that didn’t escape incendiary social media and eventually the mayor.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella promptly reacted, “I admonish them, never do that again. There is no order from the City Government.” Or that whoever was supervising these volunteers in the cleanup must never allow the latter to plod on sludge.
But, really, what can a bunch of poor hands do to clear the tonnage that is choking the city’s waterways?
Labella now seeks the help of barangay captains in solving the city’s garbage and the consequent flooding it causes during heavy downpour. Tidying up the city is one of Labella’s priorities in his 100 days in office.
In his first meeting with the 80 village chiefs Thursday, July 25, Labella emphasized the latter’s accountability via Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Section 17 of the Act states that: “The barangay shall be responsible for ensuring that a 100-percent collection efficiency from residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural sources, where necessary within its area of coverage, is achieved.”
RA 9003 also cracks a whip on barangay captains who are remiss in their duties of cleaning up their backyards.
“Local government officials and officials of government agencies concerned who fail to comply with and enforce rules and regulations promulgated relative to this Act shall be charged administratively in accordance with RA 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991) and other existing laws, rules and regulations,” thus reads a provision under Administrative Sanctions of RA 9003.
While it seems fantasy to ever hope that a City Government would file cases against barangay chiefs in relation to RA 9003, private citizens and even the anti-graft office can take the lead. Barangay chiefs can, in turn, pressure the residents to comply with the law on proper waste disposal.
Environmentalist lawyer and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Antonio Oposa Jr. once said, “The most basic element of character and nation-building is discipline...The most basic form of discipline is cleanliness. With this move (the Ombudsman’s Solid Waste Management Compliance Program in 2013), perhaps all local officials will now sit up, listen and finally take action.”