The Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance issued a press release yesterday calling on Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia to strictly enforce the solid waste management laws and ordinances in the city including the arrest and reprimand of violators of the laws.

In their press release, BAHA Council member Jean Trebol and monitoring head Norman Campos said they shared their observations of the wanton disregard by the public of the solid waste management laws in their letter to Leonardia dated January 4, 2008 .

They said these bad habits are contributing further to the flooding of the city and that the public will do its share if the local government shows decisive leadership, including putting violators under the threat of law.

They also pointed out that such public behavior is aggravated by the failure of the city government to arrest and to prosecute violators of the solid waste management laws and ordinances.

They said they requested Leonardia to start strict enforcement of solid waste management laws and ordinances if this is only the means to teach everyone to dispose of their garbage properly.

Leonardia had created last year the Bacolod City Clean and Green Coordinating Action Team to concentrate on the clean and green program of the city including the implementation of SWM laws.

The team will spearhead the city's campaign on environment protection, and propose legislative policy for a better Environment Management System for Bacolod City .

Councilor Greg Gasataya, who was designated by the Mayor to head the action team, yesterday said they will implement waste segregation within the first quarter of this year, starting with the households and offices with City Hall as pilot area. They will also meet with the barangay captains and come up with an intensive SWM campaign in the schools and barangays, he added.

Gasataya said the action team has already held meetings on the problem of garbage collection.

He said they met with renowned environment lawyer, Antonio Oposo in Iloilo last month and his thrust was not to file cases against violators of the SWM law but to take pro-active measures. In order to encourage local governments to comply with the SWM law, Oposa announced the launching of a contest (the Environmental Compliance Excellence Award) in the Visayas, he said.*CGS

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