40T caught for violating anti-littering ordinance

CEBU, Philippines - More than 40,000 people were apprehended by the Cebu City Environment Sanitation and Enforcement Team (CESET) for indiscriminately throwing their garbage in public places in violation of the city’s anti-littering ordinance.

 City Councilor Nestor Archival, chairman of the City Council committee on environment, said the statistics showed that from July 2005 up to the present, the number of persons apprehended for violating City Ordinance 1361 and other related environmental laws already reached 40,800.

Archival said CESET had filed 4,070 criminal cases before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MCTC), prompting some of the violators to offer for a compromise settlement by paying their fines.

There were 3,336 violators of the anti-littering ordinance each paying P500 to the city treasurer’s office. The ordinance allows violators to propose for a compromise settlement of their cases.

 Archival said 215 persons who had been charged before the court paid P1,000 each as an out-of-court settlement.

The ordinance carries a penalty of P2,500 fine or a year of imprisonment.

“Bisan kadtong mga tawo nga makit-an namo nga nagpataka lang og labay sa upos sa ilang sigarilyo amo gihapon nga dakpon,” a CESET member said.

Senator Loren Legarda had asked the local government units and Department of Environment and Natural Resources to strictly monitor the compliance of the solid waste management act.

In Cebu City, many of the barangays are still not following the proper segregation of garbage. The law provides that the unsegregated garbage will not be collected from the source, but garbage collectors still collected the unsegregated garbage.

Meanwhile, in line with the city’s cleanliness drive, the City Hall has issued 122 dump trucks and garbage trucks to the barangays with free fuel supply, aside from the additional honorarium to the barangay garbage collectors. — Rene U. Borromeo/LPM (FREEMAN NEWS)