A TOTAL of 79.7 metric tons of garbage were collected from nine cemeteries in Cebu City during the observance of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days on Nov. 1 and 2, 2019.
Department of Public Services (DPS) head Joel Biton said the volume did not include garbage from cemeteries in the mountain barangays.
Calamba cemetery, considered one of the largest Catholic cemeteries in the city, yielded the most trash at 15 metric tons, he said.
Aside from cleaning up Calamba, the DPS also hauled the garbage at the cemeteries in Barangays Luz, Talamban and Pardo and at Doña Pepang and the Queen City Memorial Garden.
Biton said they deployed four six-wheeler garbage trucks to bring the garbage to the transfer station in Barangay Inayawan.
Most of the garbage they collected were withered flowers and discarded plastic items, he said.
“If the (DPS) cleaners see that the flowers are getting rotten, they just also collect it. We only left those that were still fresh,” Biton said.
Biton said he wasn’t surprised by the volume of garbage they collected after he saw the crowd in the cemeteries last Saturday.
He said the crowd was the reason his men could not immediately clean the cemeteries. It wasn’t until late Saturday night that they could start with the cleanup as the crowd had diminished by then.
Biton said they finished collecting and hauling the garbage at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.
During the same period last year, the DPS hauled 45 metric tons of garbage.
Meanwhile, Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office head John Jigo Dacua said not many people were issued citation tickets for violating City Ordinance 1361, or the anti-littering ordinance, although he did not give a number.
“My instruction was to issue citation (tickets) to those who did not heed our enforcers’ simple warning. So far, people were compliant except for some,” Dacua said.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella had directed authorities to penalize not only those who brought sharp objects and alcoholic drinks, but also those who violated environmental laws, specifically the anti-littering ordinance, when he inspected cemeteries last Nov. 1. (JJL)