April Fools?

SOMETHING SMELLS!

Negros Daily Bulletin

By Alan S. Gensoli

As I write this column, my celfone is ringing fast and furious ushering text messages from business owners and executives, even barangay officials, confirming their receipt of notice from Mayor Bing Leonardia and Councilor Greg Gasataya that effective April 1, 2009, unsegregated garbage will no longer be picked up. Moreover, penalties will be imposed upon those convicted of non-compliance to the city government’s directives towards Bacolod’s final and full subscription to R.A. 9003, the country’s Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. I thought this day would never come. Apparently, it will. Alleluia! 

First thing’s first: As much as I have been critical of our local government in the past for its delayed compliance to R.A. 9003, it is now incumbent upon me to applaud Mayor Bing Leonardia and Councilor Greg Gasataya for this landmark step, albeit the first step, towards the implementation of R.A. 9003. 

When Pres. Arroyo signed E.O. 774 last Dec. 26 and gave a new deadline of June 26, 2009 for LGUs to reduce solid waste generation by 50%, I admit I was skeptical about the ability of the present government of Bacolod City to perform. Imagine my glee now that City Hall has turned around to beat the President’s cut-off date by almost three months. If we give censure where censure is due, we must also give credit where credit is due. To ignore this accomplishment of our local government would only hold the integrity of my past criticisms suspect. And so, cheers, City Hall! 

The notice came in the form of a four-page flyer, relatively brief but packed with all the needed information-needed for now, that is. You see, if Mayor Bing and Councilor Greg gave us the entire R.A. 9003 in one fell swoop, nothing could ensure resistance to Solid Waste Management more. But with this flyer, we are given just enough information to make a dent at SWM, and that’s good enough, I believe, for so long as we are all clear that this is just the beginning, and that there will be improvements and modifications along the way to SWM heaven. 

I like it that the flyer includes basic descriptions of what compostable, recyclable, residual, and special wastes are, the latter really referring to hazardous wastes. There are also examples of each-all the reason for us to comply and for government to penalize us when we do not comply. I also like it that the flyer lists examples of prohibited acts and their corresponding penalties. There are a total of 16 prohibited acts listed in Sec. 48 of R.A. 9003, but the flyer includes four only, for now. The four are most applicable to our local population: Littering or throwing wastes in public places (like flicking a cigarette butt, and I suppose, even spitting), open burning of wastes (like burning our garden sweepings every afternoon, like burning sugarcane cansiaja after the field has been harvested), open dumping (like designated dumping areas in our subdivisions where we dump unsegregated garbage), and mixing of segregated garbage. The fines for these range from P300 to P500,000. And there could be additional imprisonment of up to six months. 

Please do not misunderstand that just because only these four have been published by our city government you cannot be faulted for the other 12. Remember what they say about ignorance of the law. If that happens to you, it would be adding injury to insult-ignorante ka na, namultahan ka pa. 

If at the time this column is published you haven’t received any notice from your barangay captain yet, call him. Or her. You need to get in touch with your barnagay officials because things need to be explained to you, such as, how to segregate garbage, what are the collection days for different types of garbage, and if you have to bring your garbage to certain pick up points central to your barangay. 

One of the worst things that could happen is for you to be waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the garbage truck to collect from your house, and the garbage truck never comes, because you are supposed to take your garbage to a designated pick-up station in your barangay. Make it your business to know all these things, because if you don’t, because if you persist to be lazy, you will stink. Nanimaho ka na, multahan ka pa. Araguy. 

The penalties-including fines and imprisonment-are there for a reason, the reason being, resistance to garbage segregation. We hope there will be no resistance, but should there be, the penalties will kick in. But let us be clear: The penalties are not there to threaten the worst of us. They are there to protect the best of us. Penalties are there to preserve what is right for a civilized society. And resistance to SWM, just because it is inconvenient, just because it demands extra work, just because it is outside of what we are accustomed to doing, is not right for a civilized society. Let us not protest City Hall’s April 1 deadline because we are already on borrowed time. Our compliance to R.A. 9003 is long overdue, in fact, five years overdue. 

You read me right: our compliance! While before I wrote and talked about City Hall’s compliance, or the lack of it, to R.A. 9003, now that City Hall has given a deadline, now that City Hall is ready to implement in earnest R.A. 9003, the topic shifts from City Hall’s compliance to “our compliance.” That’s because per R.A. 9003, garbage segregation must be done at source. That means at home, or wherever garbage is generated. 

My co-writers in the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance, whose views you read on this space three times a week, have shared volumes of advice about SWM. Perhaps some of you bite your lips now wishing you clipped all that and stuck them on your fridge door. But it’s not too late to gather fresh information, and neither is SWM advice too complicated. Many, in fact, are common-sensical. Such as the first R in the 5-Rs of SWM: REFUSE plastics. Add to that the second R: REDUCE if you can’t Refuse. You can start with these two. You should, in fact, start with these two. 

We in the Alliance have been pushing the use of re-usable shopping bags. We’re not saying that you should buy our katcha bag, or the green bag of SM, or any other reusable grocery bag being peddled around town. We’re simply saying that all of us have some kind of REUSABLE bag at home that may be used and reused to carry your groceries, and that we should use these instead of the “sando” plastic bags. Never mind if your bag doesn’t look like a grocery bag. Never mind that it’s actually a roll-aboard, or an old Louis Vuitton daffle, an old Coach saddle, or an old Dooney & Burke pouch. Anything at all is better than the “sando” plastic bag, because people use the “sando” plastic bag to dispose of their feces, which eventually turn up in our dumpsite, contaminating our potable groundwater source with fecal coliform! 

Begin your SWM habit by refusing and reducing the use of plastics. By doing so, you would already have won half the battle, because if you REFUSE and REDUCE, then there will be less to RE-USE, less to RECYLCE, and less to ROT-which are the final three Rs of SWM. 

I know, April 1 is April Fools Day. But don’t get the funny idea that Mayor Bing and Councilor Greg are just fooling around with this deadline. If I may say so myself, our local government and we in the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance have quarreled about SWM for far too long. We have debated each other. We have begrudged each other. We have worked with each other, and then divorced each other. We have come a long way to know that City Hall is serious about April 1. And so, a word to the wise: On April 1, don’t take City Hall for a fool because you will end up as April’s Fool. Be a good citizen of this city. Follow the rules. Segregate your garbage. Bacolod City is not a place for uncivilized, unkempt people. Be clean and make your mother proud of you!*