No bird feeding
Rule to prevent ‘overfeeding’ of birds
DAVAO City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) Officer-in-charge engineer Marivic Reyes said that overfeeding of birds in parks are among the reasons why they implemented a "no feeding of animals" policy.
Reyes, in an interview with Sun.Star Davao last Friday, said that feeding of animals, especially birds, is actually discouraged in all parks of the city since the city is already giving food for these animals. "We have set schedule for feeding because they cannot be overfed since it can lead to their death. Another thing is the protection of children feeding the birds because
they may be pecked by the birds. For the (feeding of) fishes, we also want to prevent the children from falling to pond as they feed," she said.
She added that Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has also issued warnings on feeding of birds.
Reyes said Cenro, as secretariat of the Davao City Parks board, proposed the rules and regulations which they presented to the park board meeting wherein amendments to the rules and regulations were also decided. She said contents of these rules and guidelines are posted now at each park.
"We really need to safeguard our parks and our amenities and everything inside it," she said that these new set of regulations, which states the hours of operation of each park, were also implemented to avoid untoward activities.
She added that no skating, no bicycling rule in all parks is also approved to ensure the safety of park goers.
"Gina-iwasan namo nga madisgrasya sila (We really want to avoid accidents)," she said.
Reyes said this rule is implemented in Magsaysay Park, despite the fact that there is a bicycle lane and skating area built there.
She said eventually the operations of the rental of skate shoes and bikes at Magsaysay Park will have to be stopped.
"As of the moment they allowed the tenant in the area, since there are already rules that (skating and biking) is not allowed, it means that they are not allowed in the area," she said.
Reyes said the skates and bicycle rental has been given business permit, but since it is now for renewal, it will be discouraged to operate.
She also said there has been a rule approved by the Parks Board that any stall or anything placed in the park must go through the board.
She said that violators of park rules have been given warnings by the concerned personnel in the area.
Reyes said they understood that these rules may take time to be followed by the public.
She said they only released the rules this January since it has been recently approved by the Parks Board.