March L. Fianza
BAGUIO CITY -- For as long as there are people, garbage is there. It is a topic that refuses to die. And there are certainly many valid reasons why people do not or cannot segregate their waste. And so, instead of collecting the nabubulok and the di-nabubulok waste, the city’s garbage trucks pick up the naglalaok.
That was before the ProTech trucks were welcomed to help pick up the recyclables from the city’s main streets, although a lot of barangay officials who claimed they wasted no time in seeing to it that their garbage were segregated, said that biodegradables were also collected.
Contained in a news report last Sunday was a statement by the mayor admitting that leaving unsegregated waste uncollected would bring more problems, because it could result to health hazards and become eyesores.
I look at things differently. Uncollected garbage for me damages the political image of someone, wrecks the tourism image of the city, and puts in a shaky situation a waste management deal.
In the same news report the mayor said “we will strengthen the monitoring and coordination with barangay officials so that the perpetrators are identified on site and summoned to do the segregation themselves and execute affidavits and file cases against these violators.”
Last Sunday too, local newspapers published the list of barangays in the city that, according to the solid waste management office, have not been segregating their waste.
The barangay chairmen disapproved of this and called it a fault-finding reaction by the concerned office that cannot perform its duties properly.
Barangay heads who requested anonymity for obvious reasons said they were being unnecessarily being blamed for the inability of people to clean the garbage that has destroyed the tourism image of Baguio.They also felt that they were used as “scapegoats” for damages that the garbage issue has inflicted on the political image of certain elected officials.
What I see therefore is that the blame-game and garbage hit list, and the move to collect both nabubulok and di-nabubulok from the main streets were resorted to in order to protect the city’s tourism image, shield a self-proclaimed janitor’s political image, and foremost of it all is to save a waste management deal that is laden with holes where hidden interests pour out.
But in brief and separate talks with barangay executives Peter Busaing of West Quirino, Alex Yan of Tabora, HerminioMondiguing of Magsaysay Private Road and Eva Fianza of Happy Homes Lucban, all of them said they had been monitoring waste disposal activities in their barangays and had been segregating ever since.
In a brief talk also with people who have been directly segregating trash on the ground, they confirmed that in an urban community such as Baguio, no amount of monitoring in any barangay can strictly segregate waste, as there will always be non-biodegradables and biodegradables mixed in garbage plastic bags that come from the source.
Considering what the garbage people in the field know, the chairmen of some of the barangays who were named in the garbage “hit list” said there was no indisputable basis in coming up with the list, except maybe for reports made by the truck collectors or the “private segregators” who have been riding on the government garbage trucks.
Happy Homes Lucban PB Fianza said, she has been monitoring her barangay’s waste disposal activities, has taken photos of non-segregated waste and has identified the people responsible. I wonder if the waste management office will file cases against these people.
By the way, I thought I heard someone promise during the election campaign of 2010 that when he gets elected, hauling garbage from the city to an outside dumpsite will stop. Well, promises are made to be broken, especially when there are waste recycling contracts and tipping fees to talk about.
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I wonder why PB Peter Busaing of West Quirino Hill who is running for a seat in the Board of Directors of the Beneco has gotten the unwavering support of almost all punong barangays of District 5 namely DizonSubd., Tabora, Happy Homes Lucban, Camdas, Upper and Lower Magsaysay, T. Alonzo, Sto. Nino, Slaughter Compound, New Lucban, ABCR, Kagitingan, Magsaysay Private Road, P. Burgos, P. Zamora, Kayang Hilltop, Upper Market Subd.; East Middle and Lower Quirino Hill.
To end speculations, I interviewed at least four barangay chairmen from District 5. These were what I gathered from them:
PB HerminioMondiguing of Magsaysay Private Road: Barangay Chair Busaing will push for the permanent transfer of the management of city street lights to the Beneco, not only because of the company’s expertise and speedy response and action, but because Busaing knows that uninterrupted street light power is the clamor of electric consumers who care for the safety of a neighborhood.
PB Alex Yan of A. Tabora: PB Busaing will push for the installation of barangay-based Closed-Circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in Baguio and Benguet as one of the means in helping crime prevention because Busaing knows that not all barangays are capable of insuring peace and order; hold peace and order trainings in areas where these are needed.
PB Eva Fianza of Happy Homes Lucban: Kapitan Peter Busaing will provide medical assistance to Senior Citizens and indigent members of the community as well as provided livelihood assistance to the same sector; and grant scholarship benefits to financially poor but deserving students.
PB Caluza of New Lucban: PB Busaing will promote Sports and Youth Development; help rehabilitate and energize existing sports facilities in the barangays. He is one person who has shown me his programs on Health, Education, Peace and Order for all sectors.
Election time will be on October 22, 2011 (Saturday) from 8AM to 3PM. Please be a concerned electric member-consumer by exercising your right by participating in the coming Beneco board elections. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
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