THE City Government of Davao mandated a retrieval and cleanup operation of all election paraphernalia in the city on May 10 to 12, 2022.
The mandate is based on the new Executive Order 15 Series of 2022, “An order for all local candidates to create their respective teams to retrieve, re-use, and recycle all local and national election paraphernalia in the city of Davao on May 10, 11, and 12, 2022,” signed by Mayor and vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte-Carpio and released on Thursday, April 27.
With this, all local candidates and their campaign party must create a cleanup team that will participate in the city-wide cleanup drive within their respective districts.
Under Section 3 of the said EO, all campaign paraphernalia retrieved during the cleanup operation shall be recycled or delivered to recycling centers. The teams are banned from disposing of the materials in garbage bins or waste disposal points.
The EO also states that the campaign materials are no longer of use after the national and local elections on May 9, 2022, thus it shall properly be disposed of.
“There is a need to ensure that proper disposal of these campaign materials is observed to avoid contributing to more waste products and to promote effective waste management in the city,” the executive order read.
Duterte-Carpio previously said that the City Government intended to release the executive order to address the overflow of campaign paraphernalia that, according to the mayor, are “eyesores.”
“We intend to come up with an executive order, ordering all local candidates to create their cleanup teams immediately after election day. We will ask them to clean for three days, May 10, 11, 12,” she said.
“Sa pagkakaron nga makita nako nga sakit sa mata ang mga streamer ug tarpaulin sa mga kandidato (The streamers and tarpaulins of candidates are not pleasant to look at),” she added.
At the same time, posting campaign materials on trees, plants, and similar shrubs are also prohibited since it violates Republic Act 3571, an act that prohibits the cutting, destroying or injuring of planted or growing trees, flowering plants and shrubs, or plants of scenic value along public roads, in plazas, parks, school premises or any other public ground.
Jayvee Agas, chief of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Davao, said in an April 21 interview with SunStar Davao that DENR-Davao, in cooperation with City Environment and Natural Resources Offices (Cenro) and Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Offices (Penro), is actively monitoring and retrieving campaign materials that are unlawfully posted.
“Ito kasi yung lagi namin sinasabi everytime na may campaign periods tayo. Yung mga campaign materials hindi natin siya ilalagay sa puno, much more na hindi siya ipapako kasi nakakasira siya,” Agas said.
(This is our problem every campaign period. The campaign materials should not be posted on the trees because it can harm the health of trees.)
As of April 18, at least two cubic meters worth of campaign materials have been retrieved by DENR-Davao.