BAGUIO CITY – Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. voluntarily offered to provide a cash reward for public order and safety enforcers, market vendors and the general public who arrest unscrupulous individuals indiscriminately dumping their garbage in the public market or in the different parts of the central business district area or those involved in pickpocketing activities in the city.
Yangot, who chairs the City Council Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, said that the P1,000 that he will shell out for every documented arrest will come from his personal initiatives to inspire the concerned enforcers and the public to be vigilant against unscrupulous individuals wanting to ruin the clean and green as well as the peace and order programs of the local government.
“We want our people to be vigilant and mindful of what is happening around them that is why we voluntarily offered to provide the cash reward to anyone who can apprehend undisciplined individuals indiscriminately dumping their garbage in the public market and those involved in pickpocketing activities,” Councilor Yangot stressed.
However, he explained that the arrest must be appropriately documented showing the arrest report by the police and the filing of the appropriate cases against the unscrupulous individuals to instill discipline among the residents and visitors not to unscrupulously dump their garbage around the city.
He said that there had been numerous complaints from barangay officials and market vendors that some unscrupulous individuals, not only from the different barangays in the city but also from other neighboring towns, who indiscriminately dump their unsegregated garbage in the different parts of the public market, around the central business district area and even in the pickup points of segregated garbage in the different barangays that contribute to the significant increase in the volume of garbage generated in the city proper.
According to him, the police, the public order and safety enforcers and the public need to be vigilant against these unscrupulous individuals who simply dump their garbage in public places contributing to the eye sores around the city, thus, something concrete must be done to address the problem and teach undisciplined individuals their lessons.
Yangot emphasized the proper disposal of garbage is the obligation of every individual or household and should not be left to the local government alone because by properly disposing one’s generated waste, a significant volume of garbage can be either recycled, re-sued or eventually left behind instead of being brought to the transfer station for hauling outside the city.
Yangot expressed optimism that law enforcers and the public will be empowered to play an active role in monitoring the compliance of the people on their obligation to segregate garbage at source to contribute in efforts to reduce the volume of garbage being hauled out of the city to the Urdaneta sanitary landfill so that saved public funds for the purpose can be used for the implementation of the local government’s priority development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services.
By Dexter A. See
