Personnel from the Lapu-Lapu City Environment and Natural Resources Office ( Cenro) continue to collect more hospital wastes from the Mactan Channel on Jan. 11, 2019. / Photo courtesy of Lapu-Lapu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Lapu-lapu city government is set to file charges against the hospitals whose names were found on the labels of the medical trash seen floating in Mactan Channel and its coastline for the past weeks.
Lapu-lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza, in a press conference on Wednesday, said that all the documents including the photographs of the medical wastes showing the names of the hospitals were already forwarded to the City Legal Office for proper legal action.
“Actually, all the papers, ang mga documents, that pinpoint to the hospitals are all with the city attorney. They collated all those papers kay most probably they are preparing actions na,” Radaza said.
Radaza explained that they decided to direct the complaint against the identified hospitals rather than their hauling firm, Davao City Environmental Care Inc. (DCECI), because the evidences they have pointed directly to the hospitals.
“Ang amoa man gud nga sabot ana kay wala mi direct evidence nga mag connect sa hauling. Ang names nga naa are those of the hospitals in the labels man,” the mayor said.
Among the hospitals that the Lapu-lapu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) has identified based on the medical waste labels are the University of Cebu Medical Center (UCMed), Chong Hua Hospital and Don Ignacio Cortes Memorial General Hospital, all of which are from Mandaue City.
Read Lapu-Lapu Cenro retrieves sacks of floating hospital wastes from Mactan Channel
Radaza lamented that up until this week, Cenro personnel could still find medical wastes in the city’s shores. The first floating hospital trash were found in the waters of Barangay Ibo, located along the Mactan Channel, on January 5, 2019.
She said they have been counting the number of times they have recovered the hospital trash and every time this happened, they would issue a notice of violation to the concerned hospital, with fines to be paid for each violation.
“Ang punto man gud, di man na pwede nga labay lang mo unya bayad lang nya mo. Kinahanglan kahibawo na gud mo nga nidagsa inyong basura, pangitai og paagi nga dili na na modagsa diri ang basura,” Radaza added. /elb