Group says pilgrims left trash en route to Antipolo

MANILA, Philippines - An environment watchdog said yesterday devotees were guilty of a “massive breach” of the country’s waste law by leaving trash as they walked to the Antipolo Church in a pilgrimage that began on Maundy Thursday.

“By sunrise of Good Friday, the ugly mess left by the tens of thousands of mainly youth pilgrims came to full view,” said Manny Calonzo of EcoWaste Coalition.

He said the unbridled littering “blighted what was supposed to be an act of atonement for wrongs committed or an avowal of faith and obedience to Christ the Redeemer.”

Calonzo said the incident was a “massive breach of Republic Act 9003 (the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act), as if littering was okay and devotees were exempted from observing the law that clearly forbids and penalizes littering.”

Litterbuds can be fined as much as P1,000, compelled to render community service in the area where they littered, or both.

EcoWaste said garbage was strewn along the pilgrimage route, particularly along Ortigas Avenue Extension, Sumulong Highway, M.L. Quezon and P. Oliveros Street, and adjoining streets in Antipolo City.

Cigarette butts; packaging materials; plastic bags, cups and straws; and soiled papers were among the most common pieces of litter, especially in places where people tend to gather – in front of the Ever Gotesco Ortigas Complex in Pasig City; a convenience store at Cainta junction in Rizal; Tikling junction in Taytay, Rizal; and in Antipolo itself.

Calonzo said devotees littered Antipolo Cathedral and adjacent Dimasalang Park with old newspapers, corrugated boxes and rice sacks after using them as makeshift sleeping mats.