Garcia open to reimplement ‘no segregation, no collection’ rule

Photo from the FB page of Atty. Raymond Alvin Garcia.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia has expressed its support for the reinforcement of the ‘no segregation, no collection’ policy in Cebu City.

However, he said that it was too early to reimplement it, for now.

He made this comment after the Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) called for the reimplementation of the ‘no segregation, no collection’ policy.

“That is very a good intention and I support that wholeheartedly kanang (all) segregation. Pero (But), it cannot be abrupt,” Garcia said in a media interview.

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He added that he would prefer to pilot five or 10 barangays for the implementation, and perfect it.

“Then that’s the time nga mag implement og (to reimplement a) city-wide ‘no segregation, no collection’ policy. But as of now, it is still premature to immediately implement a no segregation, no collection policy. I think we should pilot test it in a few barangays,” Garcia said.

The ‘no segregation, no collection’ policy was first enforced under former Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s administration through City Ordinance no. 2031 or “An ordinance for the Implementation of Solid Waste Segregation at source and so does Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Program.”

While it was not strictly imposed for quite some time, Garcia said that he already received reports that some barangays were already starting to pilot the policy “but has not been perfected.”

He said that the issue is “behavioral” and it is not going to be solved “overnight.”

Garcia also agreed with the plan of the SWM to establish their own department to centralize the segregation’s enforcement.

He said that should the SWM department be formed, it could be a division under the Department of Public Services or a separate department.

“But that is something that we will have to study. It’s not easy to just open up a department. You need a concurrence and an ordinance for that. Just creating a specific division for segregation, that is something that I am open to,” Garcia said.

“Because ang problema man gud nato is, inig pangutana nimo sa DPS, moingon man sila nga ‘di mana namo trabaho ang pag segregate, collection ra man mi’ so mangita ta og division nga ang ilang tan-awon is to educate people, behavioral, sa pag segregate,” he added.

(Because our problem is when the DPS would ask, they would say that ‘it is not our work to segregate, we are only for collection’, so we will look for a division that will look to educate people, behavioral in segregating.)

Should there be a division for SWM in the future, Garcia said that there would be no redundancy in the offices if it would only be a “division under a department.”

Last 2022, the Cebu City Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team (CESET) issued a memorandum to all barangay environmental officers in urban and upland areas, which directed the strict implementation of the “no segregation, no collection” policy.