Seized poll tarps to benefit poor school kids in Babuyan

THE ILLEGALLY posted campaign materials that have been confiscated around Metro Manila will soon find better uses, either as bags for schoolchildren or tents for typhoon evacuees.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has donated two tons of tarpaulin streamers to Babuyan Islands Mission headed by Dominican priest Joemar Sibug, which will recycle the materials into backpacks or tents.

Mission volunteer Mon Corpuz said these end-products would be distributed in poor communities in the Babuyan Islands, Batanes and Southern Palawan.

The donation alone could produce up to 1,000 school bags, he said.

The MMDA earlier made a similar donation to EcoWaste Coalition, which is also recycling the tarpaulins.

Under Oplan Baklas, MMDA teams have been tearing down campaign materials posted outside areas designated by the Commission on Elections.

The drive was launched in Feb. 9—the start of the official campaign season for national candidates in the May 9 polls.

Francis Martinez, head of the MMDA Sidewalk Clearing Operations Group, said a total of seven tons of campaign materials had so far been collected by the agency. Maricar B. Brizuela