Cenro to village officials: Enforce laws on garbage segregation

It has been three months since the “no segregation, no collection” policy in Cebu City was reintroduced, but some barangays reportedly have yet to strengthen their enforcement.

Because of this, all elected officials from the 80 barangays will undergo a seminar on solid waste management from June 19 to 23.

The activity is organized by the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO), the Environmental Management Bureau 7 and the Office of the Environmental Ombudsman.

“(It’s) sad to say that my barangay, Barangay Luz, is one of the non-compliant villages. We’ll be filing charges against the driver and collectors since they are allegedly negligent,” said incoming CCENRO head Nida Cabrera.

“Another Barangay is Tisa. Although reelected Barangay Captain Phillip Zafra has been strongly campaigning on the policy, there are still defiant residents. There are also cases where our barangays and households are segregating, but the failure is in the collection,” she added.

The policy falls under City Ordinance (CO) 2031 (solid waste segregation at source) and CO 1361, which provides for the issuance of citation tickets to those caught urinating, spitting, littering, defecating in public places, or not following the correct schedule of garbage collection.

It prohibits the disposal of trash in public places and penalizes those who fail to segregate garbage into residual, non-biodegradable, biodegradable and special wastes.

The policy also prohibits the disposal of trash outside the scheduled time of collection and throwing garbage beyond five meters from the household and/ or establishment’s gate.

Violators will have to pay P500 within seven days as a compromise fee and render community service for one to six months, or the court may also order jail time.

Cabrera urged everyone to practice segregation since it not only reduces garbage but also helps the City Government save on collection costs.

She added that the policy is expected to reduce garbage by 20 to 30 percent. From 650 tons a day, the city has only generated 530 tons of garbage a day for the past months.

The City is paying Pasajero Motors Corp. P1,248 for every ton of garbage they dispose of.

“We’ve recommended to the mayor that the salary of collectors should now be based on output. We’re doing this because we found that barangay collectors are not serious enough on the implementation. Collecting once a day isn’t enough and will only make it a recurring problem,” Cabrera said.