Community work pays off for councilor

CEBU CITY—Nida Cabrera has been organizing squatters so that they can be recognized as permanent residents of Barrio Luz.

She helped the village grow through livelihood programs—the most successful of which was a solid waste management system that earned the village a Galing Pook award.

Now, Cabrera is bringing her advocacy to the city council as chair of the committee on environment.

Under the “Kwarta sa Basura” program, biodegradable wastes are recycled as earthworm casts and sold as fertilizers. Nonbiodegradable wastes, such as plastics and bottles, are made into bags, placemats and home furnishings.

While earning from recycled trash, Barrio Luz residents have formed themselves into a cooperative.

Cabrera, a social worker and former barangay leader, said it was not difficult to organize and encourage villagers to participate in the program.
“We have a long history of struggle in fighting for our security of tenure in Barrio Luz. We have been working together since 1994,” she said.

In 1994, Cabrera, then a member of the nongovernment Movement for the Advancement for Social Services, organized residents to oppose a plan to sell the lots they were occupying and to ask the provincial government to give them the right to purchase the property.

Then Gov. Lito Osmeña later signed an executive order allowing the sale of the lot to the community in coordination with the National Housing Authority.

Cabrera first rented a house in Barrio Luz.

Cabrera has been taking her green advocacy seriously, enrolling for an environmental management certificate at the University of Southern Philippines and attending training programs at the Asian Institute of Technology and University of the Philippines Los Banos.

She now plays a major role in the implementation of the Cebu City government’s “no segregation, no collection” policy.

She frequents the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, which was ordered closed last March 31 and converted into a waste recovery facility, to accompany plastic buyers and check the further segregation of nonbiodegradable wastes.

The native of Bogo town in northern Cebu said people’s participation is key in implementing successful programs, an example set by Barangay Luz residents.

“We can create champions in the community when you work with them,” she said.