City to fully implement anti littering code starting May 16

ILOILO CITY – The solid waste management board chaired by city mayor Jerry P. Treñas will start full implementation of the anti-littering provisions of city Regulation Ordinance No. 149 or the Environmental Code of Iloilo City starting May 16, 2009 in all 180 barangays here.

Treñas said a comprehensive training module is currently being prepared by the waste board and the city environment and natural resources office for the conduct of a training-seminar to all barangay chiefs and four other persons to include barangay tanods and members of the barangay council.

The trainings will be conducted in clustered barangays in March and April as training months and seminar participants will undergo a graduation rite where they will be awarded an identification card as duly deputized Barangay Sanitation Officer.

The punong barangay shall organize a barangay sanitation unit who shall assist him in the implementing the sanitation ordinance, patrol the barangay neighborhood and issue sanitation citation ticket to violators in the barangay.

On the other hand, each city police precincts shall deploy a police sanitation unit to assist the barangay captain and the barangay sanitation unit, patrol their territorial jurisdiction and issue citation ticket to violators.

The solid waste management board shall create an Inspection Team to inspect the barangays and shall issue sanitation citation ticket to barangay captains who failed to maintain cleanliness of their respective barangay.

Sanitation violators will have to pay a fine of P500 for the first offense, P750 for the second offense, P1,000 for the third offense and for the fourth and subsequent offenses, the violator to appear in the Mayor’s Office or face possible prosecution.

Proceeds from the fines collected on citation tickets shall accrue to the barangay where the apprehensions of violators were made. The collected fines shall be used for environmental sanitation or health projects and programs of the barangay concerned.

The full implementation is an offshoot of a test run conducted late last year in 45 barangays of the city proper. So far, 10 barangay captains in Jaro district were the first batch of deputized Sanitation Officers.

by Lydia C. Pendon