Garbage woes after the Etag festival

>> Tuesday, February 21, 2023

HAPPY WEEKEND 

                             Garbage spills and post event clean ups 

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE – For  the Church of  St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) whose sprawling compound was used for  ball games, shows, and stall spaces for food and dry goods during the 4 day Etag Festival held Feb 2-5,  it was frustrating to see much garbage strewn and left all over the Mission Compound after the  event.
    This, to ask who is more responsible for garbage disposal.  Is it the local government unit who collected garbage collection fee of P100 per stall aside from a mayor’s permit and sanitary fee, or the stall owner who rented the stall space, or the lot owner who collected space rental fee.  
    Municipal Environmental and Natural Resources Officer (MENRO) April Castro during the assessment of the four-day Etag Festival said the stall owners are the ones more responsible for their waste rather than the LGU.
    There must be something wrong somewhere.
    The stall space tenant has the responsibility to segregate her garbage and put these in separate sacks for degradable and bio degradable waste. The garbage collector has the responsibility to bring the waste to a garbage site.
    The LGU created a waste management committee during the festival headed by the MENRO with five secondary schools as members and budgeted with P5, 000 each obviously to do waste collection.
    So it was known that school children picked up waste around the Mission Compound and brought these to the waiting dump truck of the LGU at designated hours during the four day event.
    Lack of waste collection however was pronounced after the event with paper cups, plastic bottles, Styrofoam, more plastic strewn all over the rented spaces and its surroundings including human waste wrapped in plastic. 
RA 9003 which the LGU is bound to follow, provides that local government is “primarily responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of RA 9003 within their respective jurisdictions”.
    And that primarily is the LGU’s mandate for the segregation and collection of waste with RA 9003 providing for “ecological solid waste management program, creating the necessary institutional mechanisms and incentives and declaring certain acts prohibited.”
    A big quantity of garbage strewn all over the Mission Compound was cleaned up by CSMV after the four day event of the festival.
    One of those tasked by the Church of St Mary the Virgin to do the  cleanup said garbage especially  styrofoam to paper cups, plastic  wrappers were found all over the food court, and at the stall areas and its surroundings at KenGedeng and  Makamkamlis.
    Staff of the municipal Materials Recovery Facility said they loaded one truckload of garbage per day to the MRF site during the event.
    Stall owner Marina said she paid 100 peso garbage collection fee and expected the LGU to collect the garbage.
    The  Municipal  Budget officer  Jennylyn Biang  during the fiesta assessment belittled the P100 garbage collection fee even too small for  one stall.
    And so it was known than stall owners are instructed by the LGU to bring their segregated garbage at a waiting dump truck at scheduled times of the day.
    And for a law which did not see any violator/s to get penalized for quite some time in this town for not segregating their waste or littering anywhere is a lucky day/s for the offender.  
    Towards the end, the law provides, “... the collection of non-recyclable materials and special wastes shall be the responsibility of the municipality”.
    To address the growing garbage woes of this tourist town, the LGU inked an agreement in 2010 with CSMV to provide a lot for the establishment of an MRF.  For the past 10 years however did not satisfactorily see what it is intended to be with the MRF site used as a dumping area for plastic bottles, glass bottles, styrofoam, residual waste, pampers, used paper and tissue, destroyed clothing  and slippers, cans, and even dog poo.
    Recycling equipment bogged down for quite some time causing sacks of sacks of glass bottles to get stacked up in the site to add to the stench when waste burning was done to the complaint of the nearby neighbourhood.
    This led the CSMV to close the MRF site December last year and for the LGU relocate the MRF. An extension was asked by the local government to which the CSMV granted a 60 day extension till end of February this year to clean and clear up the site.
    A recent visit at the MRF site noted the piled sacks of glass bottles had already been crushed and the glass powder brought to a private construction site. PET bottles are regularly collected by a private buyer.  
    A chance conversation with Municipal Councilor Felicito Kibatay said he had to secure the glass crusher stationed at northern Sagada to have the bottles crushed after visiting the MRF site and found a frustrating situation.Thank you Councillor Kibatay for your prompt action.
    A glass crusher at the MRF site was destroyed and for quite some time, bottles had been left un- attended to add to residual waste forcefully stacked to fill up space in a small structure intended for such.
Mayor Felicito Dula said arrangements are being done to address garbage issues of the town including a site to bring garbage.
    Another major issue is the lack of toilet facilities obviously with visitors asking where the CR is with no public CR in sight.  
    There is no public toilet of the LGU for quite some time except for two at the municipal hall and the market and a destroyed toilet bowl at the old municipal hall.
    The CSMV provides for a pay-CR at the Centrum building near the main road and three at the immediate church compound though closed at night.
    It is no wonder when a number of plastic-wrapped human waste were seen near the bushes by those who cleaned after the event. 
    It would be good to review the LGU’s 10 year solid waste management plan and see what happened from there.

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