Citywide cleanup campaign today

CEBU, Philippines - Thousands are expected to join a massive coastline and urban cleanup drive in Cebu City today in preparation for the rainy season.

But while the City Coastal and River Management Board will lead thousands of volunteers in the activity, mayor-elect Michael Rama said they will not remove illegal structures within the waterways.

Despite being shown by The FREEMAN a photograph of houses constructed in the middle of the Mahiga Creek, Rama said those illegal structures will not be removed.

Rama chairs the city’s Coastal Management Board.

City Hall’s Department of Public Services chief Dionesio Gualiza expects that thousands will participate in the 19th coastal and 15th urban cleanup campaign.

He said they expect to collect 150 tons of garbage from the city’s shorelines and creeks.

Retired army colonel Cesar Enriquez, who heads the Bantay Dagat Task Force, said he is willing to conduct the cleanup at the Mahiga Creek, but did not promise to remove the illegal structures there.

The creek used to be a wide waterway situated within the boundary of Cebu City and Mandaue City in the North Reclamation Area. It was then a river, but it slowly became a creek due to illegal constructions on its banks.

The FREEMAN visited Mahiga two weeks ago and saw a shanty being constructed in the middle of the creek. Its floor is less than a foot from the water.

“Klaro man kaayo nga ang sapa nga lapad kaayo kaniadto miabot na sa tunga ang gitukod nga kabalayan kay kon ang taytayan ang tan-awon naa na sa tunga ang kabalayan,” said port worker Serafin Areglo.

Shanties were also constructed in danger zones beside the Kinalumsan River from barangays Mambaling to Duljo-Fatima. They are also sprouting on the banks of Guadalupe River and Lahug River, and on the creek in Carreta.

Rama said there are many who live in the city’s “danger zones” like riverbanks and beneath the bridges.

Outgoing Mayor Tomas Osmeña had said he has no plans to provide financial assistance to those evacuated from the “danger zones,” explaining that once the city will help them transfer to another place there will be other illegal settlers who will build shanties there.

Osmeña said the problem is difficult to solve because there are many from the province looking for greener pastures in Cebu.

Gualiza urged the city to file charges against barangay officials who are hesitant or are not enforcing City Ordinance 1361 and the Solid Waste Ecological Act.

He observed that many barangay captains are not enforcing the law that prohibits the throwing of garbage into creeks.

All 5,000 City Hall employees will be deployed to different areas to assist officials and volunteers of different barangays in cleaning up rivers, creeks and canals.

At least 27 organized groups from the academe, Armed Forces and Marine reservists will participate in the event.

Atanacio Almocera, professor at the University of the Philippines Cebu College and member of the Cebu Coastline Management Board, said the DPS has no equipments for desilting so the cleanup today will be more on improving the aesthetics of the rivers at the same time remove the garbage like plastics that are usually causing rivers and canals to clog up.

“Our cleanup will have three directions. Number one, we will focus on inferior sitios and areas na naandan na nga labayanan bisa’g dili dumpsite aron malimpyo tan-awon. Number two, atong waterwaste and creeks and ikatulo, ang mga posters and other campaign materials especially in the pier area nga klaro kaayo sa mga turista,” Almocera said.

Gualiza said rivers and creeks in the city are heavily polluted and are being ignored by the barangays. These rivers and creeks are found in Tejero, Mabolo, Carreta and Pasil.

He said they will urge the barangays to initiate the cleanup activity because it is their primary responsibility to protect the welfare of the constituents against harm brought by these dirty rivers, especially on health.

The cleanup drive will start at 7 a.m. today and will end by noon.

Meanwhile, Medellin town has invited the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office to join its “Scubasurero” and Coastal Cleanup activity on June 26.

Mayor Ricardo Ramirez requested the LCPO to participate in their cleanup activity on the coastlines of barangays Kawit, Gibitingil, Daanlungsod and Antipolo.

There are approximately 40 scuba divers that will join in the activity, 20 of them from the LCPO. — Clea Lhyle P. Ompad /LPM (THE FREEMAN)