Operation Boycott

SOMETHING SMELLS!

Negros Daily Bulletin

By Alan S. Gensoli

Did you see the women’s tennis finals of the BNP Paribas Open? With 25mph winds, the 16,100-seat stadium court of the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens continued to be packed with tennis fans from around the world, including the garbage mal-educados. The match between reigning champ and Serbian beauty Ana Ivanovic, and Russian challenger Vera Zvonareva, was a thrill from the get-go, what with strong winds blowing balls where they were not intended to go. But the wind blew more than just balls. Twice, the tense and highly contested opening set was interrupted by the umpire due to plastic wrappers being blown practically into the faces of the players-the first while they were playing Deuce #3 at Game 13 (both players were tied with six games apiece), and the second during the tie breaker of the set (since all the allowed deuces ended without producing a winner). So you see, plastic wrap is irritating in more ways than one! 

Why was plastic wrap allowed at Indian Wells in the first place? Don’t they know that plastic wrap is not even allowed in the new wet market of Lucban, Quezon Province? And soon, perhaps also in Bacolod City? Ambitious? Hey, if Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Councilor Greg Gasataya can warn us, “No Segregation, No Collection” come April 1, after so many years of not complying with R.A. 9003 (the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000), anything can happen, including finally banning plastics in our midst and “Nicole” saying Smith didnt rape her after all. 

Let me share with you these anecdotes en route to April 1, the deadline set by the Bacolod LGU for its citizens to segregate garbage.

Last week, our member, Joel Jaquinta, MSWM (that’s Master in Solid Waste Management, if there is such a thing), made a command performance for the Bacolod Business Inn and the new Planta Centro Hotel. At the request of these two establishments, Joel ran a four-hour seminar on SWM for their managers and personnel. 

I learned from our Education Committee Chair, the indefatigable Maggie Jalandoni, that Joel does not even charge a standard fee. But don’t be a scrooge and take advantage of Joel’s meekness. Now is not the time to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. For his wisdom, I suggest you offer Joel a respectable honorarium plus food. Believe you me, the seminar is worth every centavo you pay him, especially considering that ignorance of SWM could get you some jail time. That’s why they say, if you think SWM knowledge is expensive, try ignorance.

What is respectable honorarium? Let us cut to the chase here. For a four-hour seminar on SWM, ignorance of which could mean imprisonment for you, an honorarium of at least P2,000.00 qualifies as respectable. If you can be more generous, it will be rewarded unto you a hundredfold, because I will mention you here in my column, and that is free advertising for you. And by the way, let’s not play tricks and try to be penny-wise in various creative ways, like packing the seminar with representatives of 100 companies to save on each company’s share of the honorarium, just because you are so successful that you have 100 companies, or you are a president of a trade association. The seminar includes a demonstration of segregation processes, and so four hours is really needed to ensure that employees of a company are well guided on procedures. 

Knowing that the Business Inn and the Planta Hotel have undergone this seminar-thus proving their respect for the environment-guarantees my continued patronage of their businesses. For why should I dine elsewhere when I know that at Business Inn and Planta Hotel, people and processes are clean, sanitary, and hygienic? Moreover, undertaking the seminar hints that both hotels will be sending only residual waste to the city’s garbage facility. This show of corporate social responsibility will weigh heavily on my decision to recommend hotel accommodations to my friends, which in fact I already did when some of them came for the IBP convention last week.

Our advocacy leader, Jean Trebol, just informed me that she has already spoken to the management of The Sugarland Hotel, who likewise welcomed the idea of holding the same seminar. And so, to all my friends who often hold catered receptions in their homes, not only will you continue to delight in the chefography of Chef Pancho, now you will also be assured that the garbage that your birthday party will generate will be responsibly taken care of. Thus, by your mere choice of The Sugarland Hotel as caterer, you would have also shown your personal social responsibility. Why risk your garbage with another caterer? 

How about the other hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, and the many honky tonks? Are you ready for Wednesday, April 1? I would be pleased to print on this space the names of establishments who subscribe to SWM practices. As much as I would be happy to boycott any establishment that refuses to practice SWM.

This brings me to my point exactly: boycotting businesses that do not make worthy contributions to our community, such as practicing SWM. Consider the analogy that sidewalk vendors present. We have cried at the top of our lungs that these sidewalk vendors should be driven away, but our government has maintained that such is impossible. As a result, we have become suspicious, sometimes malicious, that the reason why this is impossible is that these sidewalk vendors are voters, and so politicians are scared to scare them away. Be that as it may, we have another ace in our sleeve. We can boycott the businesses of these sidewalk vendors, can’t we? That we do not makes us as culpable as the city officials who are unwilling to clean up the sidewalks.

It’s the same thing with businesses that will refuse to practice SWM starting April 1. If they do not heed the call of government, if they circumvent the orders of government by, say, bribing garbage truck drivers, or hiring private vehicles (such as trisikads) to pick up their unsegregated garbage in the early hours of the morning, then let’s boycott them. Last week I wrote about fines and imprisonment to penalize prohibited acts provided for by R.A. 9003. Some businesses may laugh the fines off because they can afford to pay them, or they can stomach sending their employees as their fall-guys to jail. But can they afford to close shop when we start boycotting them? It’s time we put our moneys where our mouths are.

As a marketing consultant, this idea of boycotting businesses that are not eco-friendly is close to my heart. No, I do not wish to kill businesses, but I certainly would like to grow them properly rather than blindly. If a columnist must take a stand and present a solution, then boycotting the businesses of companies that are careless about how they impact the environment, and society in general, is both my stand and my solution. And so, patience my dear reader, for you will hear this tune hummed in my column over and over again.

Back in the 70s and 80s, one of the country’s leading daily newspapers had a columnist by the name of Nanette Franco-Diyco. Her column minced no words in criticizing products and companies that fooled society in various ways, including false advertising claims. Perhaps she was feared. But for sure she was respected. She later became a top executive of J. Walter Thompson, a leading advertising agency worldwide, and upon dropping her name as my Advertising professor at the Ateneo, I landed my first job. I may be unfit to untie the shoe straps of my professor’s Ferragamo, but I am a good student and I have seen and heard how fighting for what is right in business will in the end win. Environmental care-such as segregating our garbage starting April 1-must be part of what is right in business.*