TABUK CITY, Kalinga – On July 1, 2022, the city government started the full implementation of Ordinance No. 003, Series of 2021, regulating the use of cellophane and sando bags as packaging materials and the utilization of polystyrene, by confiscating some plastic bags from business establishments in the Dagupan and Bulanao public markets.
The City Environment and Natural Resources Office, along with the Department of Trade and Industry, city government departments, Tabuk City Police Station, and barangay authorities, led the inspection in the two market sites on the first day of the implementation to ensure that the ordinance was being followed.
The city has reminded all business enterprises to get rid of any remaining plastic products before the rule is fully implemented. In response to environmental concerns, a number of informational, educational, and communicational efforts on the ban on plastics were carried out in the city.
Under the ordinance, the prohibited acts include using, selling, and providing of plastic cellophane, sando bags as secondary packaging materials. It also prohibits the using, selling, and providing styrofoam or expanded polystyrene foam as containers for food and beverages.
Businesses, sari-sari stores, market sellers, ambulant vendors, food kiosks, and similar entities that engage in the forbidden behavior are subject to fines and other sanctions. The violator must pay P500 and P1,000, respectively, for the first and second offenses, in addition to having the materials taken from them confiscated and destroyed. The third offense will result in a fine of P3,000 as well as the suspension or termination of the offender’s business license.
Salud Lammawin, the head of CENRO, has reminded some business owners as well as customers to use eco bags, sako bags, bayong, or to bring their own containers when they shop.
She also praised some compliant business owners and buyers.
All the confiscated materials will be shredded by the CENRO to assure that they will not be used again. There will be a series of monitoring by all the offices concerned to check the compliance of the business establishments of the law. By Ian Jefrey Addatu