Malabon crackdown on litterbugs nets 25
Residents and barangay (village) officials in Malabon have started “cleaning up their act” after the city government warned that it would impose penalties on those caught violating its anti-littering ordinance.
Mark Mesina, head of the Malabon City Environment and Natural Resources Office, said that the trash piles appearing on the streets of the city after garbage collection hours has decreased as the antilittering ordinance which meted out fines and other sanctions to litterbugs took effect on Oct. 1.
“We still see illegal dumping in the city but unlike before, I think we’ve seen fewer dumps since the new collection measures took effect,” Mesina told the Inquirer.
Last week, 25 people were arrested for illegally dumping trash in the city’s streets instead of waiting for the garbage collector, Mesina said, quite a small number compared to previous weeks when they would catch 10 to 15 violators per day.
“Generally, our information campaign has been effective. The warnings and threats of being penalized are well understood by the residents, save for those we arrested,” he added.
The same could not be said, however, of some barangay officials. “Some of them have been cooperative, but most of them seem like they’re not bothered by the trash,” he noted.
Mesina said the city government would be keeping tabs on uncooperative barangays whose officials could be charged administratively for failure to implement their mandate of informing their constituents of the city’s garbage collection schedule and policy.
Mayor Antolin Oreta III said that after years of the city going easy on irresponsible litterbugs, it would now enforce the regulation strictly.
The city government earlier announced that it would start this month the long-overdue full implementation of its antilittering ordinance, which was passed in 2011 and amended in 2012.
This meant that garbage collectors would go door-to-door to collect trash on specific days of the week with barangay officers ensuring that residents would not dump their garbage out in the streets.
