Garbage Out, Garbage in

Posted on January 26, 2006 - Filed Under |

GOT this slip of paper left by some village official of Pogo Grande, my village, with my household last week and guess what it contained –penalties, yes, penalties for violations of four basic rules in cleanliness and beautification in the village. 

Kind enough to provide a slight-to-stiff amount of penalties for those who have more  household garbage than they can handle, the village guys spelled out the penalties set forth under the law, of from P300 Philippine peso for the first offense, to P500 for the second and P1,000 and imprisonment  (whew!) for the third time you're found and caught littering.

A similar rate of fine/penalty applies to unclean premises, surrounding buildings and/or vacant lots with an addendum that said: "Cost of cleanup ordered by Mayor chargeable to the owner." Now, if you indiscriminately dump your wastes (preferably, not the kind of waste that quickly comes to your mind, stinking you!) just anywhere, that could cost you from a low of P500 to a high P1,000 and yes, imprisonment.  As for the pyromaniacs who do those open burnings ( we wonder how that differs to 'closed' burning) you'll be slapped a P300 fine "but not more than P1,000."

Yup, they're in earnest now , we tell you. This after the initial appeals did'nt seem to sink into the cerebellum of many Pogo Grande residents, especially the open burning part which we believe is the kind of burning you do with dried leaves, scraps of paper and old clothes, with a little tire or rubber thrown in for a real suffocating smoke. 

I wouldn't know for sure if smoking up those  rows of mango trees to induce their flowering or fruit-bearing, an old mango-growing practice that seems to really work, can be considered punishable too. Where there's smoke, there's fire?

And yet, we do love this new campaign for better cleanliness in the barangays (villages). It's about time. Too much attention for spic-n-span look is being devoted to the downtown area, the face of Dagupan City, but the body, i.e. the villages, are almost left to their own devices especially since City Hall ordered the Waste Management Division guys to already stop the garbage truck rounds of the villages sometime last year.

So you see, the villages are left with not much choice but to bite the bullet and do cleanups of their own — or they die of their own stink. Thus, the slip of paper detailing penalties. effective February 1.

Of course,as in any human drama, there are the compliants and the defiants. With the former, that slip of paper would be like Moses' tablets itself,to be obeyed like salvation at Armageddon depended on it. To the latter, it only signals a creeping concentration of State power in the village council that needs to be tested or taunted to see how far those councilmen are willing to bend backward in enforcing their rules and penalties. 

Omigod, hold on there now, while I rush to put out the garbage by the gate for collection. Track me back later.   

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