SOS, Taiheiyo Cement clean-up drive generates 2.8 metric tons of wastes

S.O.S. Volunteers gather trash indiscriminately thrown or beached from elsewhere by the tides off the shorelines of Panadtaran and South Poblacion in San Fernando, Cebu. /Contributed Photo

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines – Volunteers collected 2.8 metric tons of garbage during a recent clean-up drive along the shorelines of Barangays South Poblacion and Panadtaran and along the Luknay Creek in San Fernando, a southern town in Cebu province.

This year’s activity organized Taiheiyo Cement Philippines, Inc. (TCPI) in partnership with the Save Our Seas volunteers collected fewer garbage in comparison with the 3.8 metric tons that SOS collected during their clean-up drive on May 2017.

“Apparently, some of the garbage we gathered are fugitive waste coming from elsewhere and brought to our seafront by the tides,” said Engineer Romeo M. Gebilaguin, the TCPI environment and safety manager.

Gebilaguin said that the conduct of their annual clean-up drive organized by their company’s community relations team have also been helping San Fernando town residents become conscious of the need to care for the environment.

He said that the reduction of the volume of waste collected in this year’s clean-up drive “is a good indication that our neighbors now are becoming more conscious about keeping and properly disposing garbage.”

“Those who still indiscriminately throw their waste are getting few,” Gebilaguin added.

Others who joined this year’s clean-up drive were representatives from the Central Visayas offices of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB-7) and the Environment Management Bureau (EMB-7), and the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) based in Argao town.

The volunteers also included San Fernando town employees and personnel from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), TCPI and  Solid Earth Development Corp. (SEDC) that supplies earth materials for their cement production.

TCPI provided the participants with a souvenir shirt and cleaning paraphernalia when they arrived at the company’s multi-purpose recreation center.

In a short program, TCPI plant manager Chiyuki Sugawara, who is also the senior vice president for operations, pointed out that the main cause of marine pollution is the indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste.

He cited a report released on March 2019 on a 4.6-meter juvenile Cuvier’s beaked whale that beached itself off Mabini in Compostela Valley, southern Mindanao. Recovered from the whale’s belly consisted of at least 16 empty rice sacks and assorted plastics that weighed 40 kilograms.

“If this situation goes on, this beautiful sea will continue to be polluted, and eventually it will have a great impact on our lives,” he said.

“Who is the one who receives the great impact? It is not us, It will be the offspring of our children, our grandchildren who will experience what will be a great dreaded impact,” Gugawara added.

Loreto A. Rivac of EMB-7 of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reminded participants to “always segregate plastics to help reduce and eliminate plastics accumulating our water bodies.”

“Individual commitment and cooperation is very important,” he said.

Rivac also thanked TCPI  for organizing “this noble activity.” /dcb