Osmeña, Alcover agree: Total plastics ban in city

CEBU, Philippines - In one of those rare occasions, Cebu City Mayor  Tomas Osmeña and his political critic, City Councilor Pastor Alcover, Jr., are actually in agreement over an issue: total ban of plastics in the city.

Alcover has proposed an ordinance banning the use, sell, dispose, and produce plastics in the city after noticing that plastics are always seen in the city's rivers, creeks, and drainage systems, causing flooding.

In a press conference yesterday, Osmeña expressed support for the passage of the proposed measure.

"Yes (I support the ordinance) because plastics are the ones that clog our drainage," the mayor said.

The City Council's committee on laws and committee on environment are now studying the proposed measure. The proposed ordinance would also still undergo public hearing, which calls for the appearance of all affected stakeholders before the final deliberation

As of now, the city is requires business establishments to use eco-bags in lieu of plastics during Saturdays.

Osmeña, however, expressed concern on the penalty for violators of the proposed ordinance.

Under the proposed measure, any person caught violating the ordinance will pay a penalty of P500 for the first offense, P1,000 for the second offense, and P1,500 or an imprisonment of five days or both at the discretion of the court for the third offense.

As for the business establishments, the city will collect P1,500 for the first offense, P2,000 for the second offense, P5,000 fine and cancellation of the business permit issued by the city for the third offense.

Osmeña said cancellation of the business permits of business establishments should not be included.

Instead, he said, suspension of the business permits or warning would do.

"It's not that severe (cancellation of business permit). Maybe suspension or whatever or warning, the usual. But we'll take it seriously," he said.

"So, that's the first good idea out of Alcover. The first and probably the last," he added in jest.

Sought for comment, Alcover quipped he was surprised getting a favorable comment from a "plastic politician."

"Seriously, this is not for me. This is for the good of the city," Alcover said.

Councilor Joel Garganera, for his part, said he will support the passage of the ordinance.

Garganera heads the council's committee on environment.

The proposed measure pushed for some exemptions, such as using, selling, buying, disposing, and producing of plastic bottles, plastic furniture, plastic wares, drinking straws, containers, and sacks subject to standard quality.

Meanwhile, the regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is backing the proposed measure, but consultation with the involved sectors has to be made first to lay out strategies for its implementation, said Dr. Eddie Llamedo, head of the Regional Public Affairs Office of DENR-7.

"DENR-7 is supporting an ordinance on the complete and total ban on the use of plastics. However there should be a comprehensive consultation with the stakeholders to develop plans for transition period because of our business establishments are too dependent on plastics," he said.

By imposing a ban on the use of plastics every day, not just on Saturdays, Llamedo said this will significantly reduce the volume of plastics generated for waste disposal.

Aside from the ban, Llamedo suggested for the city to consider giving incentives to those who point out entities who fail to follow the ordinance.

He pointed out that plastics, which are non-biodegradable materials, are the most common wastes that can be found floating in rivers and canals and other bodies of water.

"It has been known that more than 80 percent of the waste collected from our shorelines is made from non-biodegradable materials such as plastics and rubber while about half of plastic items collected from our oceans were plastics bags," he said.

He said plastics bags are made from polyethylene which comes from petroleum which is a non-renewable source.  — (FREEMAN)