Pro-environment group calls for litter-free Bagong Pilipinas rally

SLOGAN FOR THE NATION Workers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority pause for a look at the stage being prepared at Quirino Grandstand in Manila in this file photo taken on January 26, 2024, ahead of Sunday’s grand launch of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s governance brand. — INQUIRER file photo / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Pro-environmental group EcoWaste Coalition urged the government and the participants of the “Bagong Pilipinas” kick-off rally at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila to keep the massive event litter-free.

“We appeal to the rally leaders to foster environmental citizenship among the participants by exhorting them to keep the park and adjacent areas litter-free,” said Ochie Tolentino, zero-waste campaigner of EcoWaste Coalition.

“Please ensure compliance to the park’s ‘clean as you go,’ no smoking and no vaping policy for the common good,” Tolentino added.

The group pointed out that keeping the movement environment-friendly is also in line with the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Kalinga at Inisyatiba para sa Malinis na Bayan (Kalinisan) program, which aims “to raise awareness and encourage participation among the Filipino citizens on environmental responsibility through proper solid waste management.”

Citing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the group said the chief executive also asked the public to help address the waste and pollution woes nationwide, as he lamented that “trash flows out to seas that have become cesspools of waste” and plastics “have become dead pools of marine life, cellophanes choking corals to death, microplastics ending up in the fish that people eat.”

“We hope this Sunday’s rally will not see a sad repeat of the trashing of Rizal Park during the Traslacion of the venerated image of the Black Nazarene after being put off for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Tolentino stressed

“As a government-led mobilization, we expect the authorities to firmly enforce RA 9003, which penalizes littering and other prohibited acts such as open dumping and open burning,” he added.

Last January 9, the group lamented the carpet of trash left by devotees who attended the Feast of the Black Nazarene. Among the trash it found were single-use plastic bags, bottles and cups, polystyrene food containers, paper food packaging, food waste, cigarette butts and disposable vapes.