Dagupan City officials outlaw ‘freedom of spit’

By Jennelyn Mondejar

DAGUPAN CITY – Spitting in public areas is now banned in this city, considered the bangus capital of the country. “Welcome to Dagupan, alagaan ang kalusugan, bawal ang dumura sa lansangan (Take care of your health, spitting in public is banned)” will greet visitors to this city as reminders drawn in tarpaulins to be posted at entrance points of the city.

City councilor Jesus Canto, author of the ordinance banning spitting in public places here, said the amendment he introduced in the old ordinance of the city banning spitting here under Ordinance Number 1453-93 entitled “Prescribing and Penalizing Acts and Omissions Inimical to Cleanliness and Sanitation” has been approved by the city council recently.

Canto, a medical practitioner and a retired hospital director of Region 1 Medical Center in this city, said violators will be fined P300 plus 24 hours of community service for the first offense, P500 plus 48 hours of community service for the second offense and P1,000 plus two weeks of community service for the third offense. He said massive information dissemination is going on and teams of government men overseeing health and sanitation in the city are deployed around to arrest violators.

If the violator is a minor, the adult accompanying him will be fined, according to Canto, as adults or their parents are the ones responsible in educating their children. Section 1 of the ordinance prohibits any person from spitting in public places such as parks and playgrounds, plazas, roads, public markets and other similar places.

When they spit, they should use a piece of tissue paper and throw these in garbage cans or receptacles, he said. He said there is a need to correct this bad habit of spitting in public places since it poses hazard to public health because of germs that may carry diseases through the saliva.