Barangay officials, workers of Tejero and volunteers from groups like the Alpha Kappa Rho fraternity remove the garbage from the Tejero Creek during Saturday’s creek cleanup.
CDN PHOTOS/LITO TECSON
Residents especially illegal settlers in the area are reminded not to throw their waste into the creek in Barangay Tejero.
Chattelyn Matelo, acting barangay chairman, 40, gave the reminder after they retrieved several solid waste like pieces of cellophane, plastic bottles from the creek during the creek cleanup on Saturday morning by barangay officials, workers, and volunteers from groups like the Alpha Kappa Rho fraternity.
Matelo said that barangay workers clean the creek once a week, but the people living beside the creek continue to throw their garbage into the waterway.
She described these residents as “undisciplined” because of what they were doing.
“Mga hugawon jud ning mga sakop namo [in the barangay]! Dili kabaalo mulimpyo sa ilang tugkaran (Some of our residents are undisciplined and are dirty. They don’t know how to clean their areas),” she said.
Matelo claimed that these residents continue to throw garbage into the creek despite the barangay’s strict implementation of the City Ordinance No. 1361, which penalizes a person throwing garbage into the city’s waterways with a P1,000 penalty.
She claimed that these people would watch barangay workers monitoring the throwing of garbage in the creek, and then they would throw their garbage when these worker-monitors would leave the area.
She also said that they use heavy equipment to help clear the waterway of garbage and to ensure the smooth flow of water in the creek, which would help ease flooding in the area.
“Ang kanang backhoe ang amo gi-gamit sa pangkuha sa mga basura diha sa sapa. Unya kami ang ting hakot ug limpyo sa kilid kay para makasiguro gyod kami na limpyo ang sapa sa tanan agihan ani,” she said.
(We used the backhoe to clear the bulk of the garbage in the waterway. Then we are the ones in charge of cleaning the sides of the creek to ensure the smooth flow of water in the waterway,) she said.
Matelo is calling on the barangay residents especially those living beside the waterway to help clean the creek to ensure that this would stay clean and that the smell caused by garbage through on the waterway would not return again.