Banilad barangay captain Dennes Tabar. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The planned acquisition of brand new trucks to manage garbage collection in Cebu City’s 80 barangays is seen a big help for the barangay captains.
But for Banilad Barangay Captain Dennes Tabar this was not enough to solve the indiscriminate disposal of garbage by some of their barangay residents.
What Banilad needs, Tabar said, is the reinstatement of their five city-paid Barangay Environment Officers (BEOs) who are tasked to go after people who dispose their garbage just anywhere.
Read More: Labella promises P5 M for brand new trucks for city’s 80 barangays
Tabar, an ally of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) of former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña, said that he was also dismayed with the outcome of the meeting which Mayor Edgardo Labella called with barangay captains this morning, August 20.
He said that Labella did all the talking and did not allow the barangay executives to also speak up to air their respective concerns.
“Nindot man iya giingon nga magtinabangay sa paglimpyo sa mga sapa. Wala man miy problema ana. Pero unsaon man na namo ng among barangay environment officers (BEOs) nga ila man gipangtaktak?” said Tabar.
(The mayor’s appeal for a coordinated effort to clean water bodies is for a good cause. I do not have any problem with that. But how do we do that after they terminated our barangay environment officers?)
Tabar said that since the termination of their BEOs when Labella assumed office in July, they already had difficulty in monitoring and apprehending violators of environmental laws and ordinances. BEOs are the ones to spot violators and issue them with citation tickets. They coordinate with barangay tanods who enforce the arrest of these violators.
In their absence, Banilad barangay tanods were supposed to take over the responsibilities of the BEOs. But their 20 barangays tanods were also unable to perform the task because they already had their hands full in ensuring the peace and order in their barangay.
Tabar said that their barangay tanods are not also trained and deputized to issue citation tickets to violators of environmental regulations.
“Kinsa may mo dakop nga wala may natrain sa akong mga tawo ana?” he said.
(Who will apprehend environmental violators when none of our other barangay employees are trained to do so?)
Aside from providing barangays with brand new trucks, Tabar is asking Labella to allow the reinstatement of their BEOs. He said that aside from issuing citation tickets, BEOs are also tasked to lead cleanup drives in the different sitios.
He said that an option is for Labella to assign city environmental officers to work in the barangays.
Tabar also asked Labella to already sign an authority to serve that will ensure the release of City Hall allowances for barangay garbage truck drivers and loaders who have not been paid their City Hall honorarium since July.
“We cannot expect them to serve with no guarantee of pay,” said Tabar.
Tabar said that Barangay Banilad releases an honorarium of P1, 500 per month to their garbage truck drivers and loaders while the city government also releases a counterpart amount. |dcb