A city government official has called on barangay councils to constitute their respective Barangay Ecological Solid Waste Management (BESWMC) or they might face cases.
In an interview with TIMES, City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) chief Marivic Reyes said the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) might run after those councils that failed to establish the body.
Reyes added that the DILG may file cases against barangays that do not create the BESWMC. “The DILG will impose the penalties based on the Memorandum Circular No. 2018-112 dated July 12, 2018,” she said.
This has prompted the city government to call on the barangay councils to organize their BESWMC after the latest audit report of the Commission on Audit (COA) showed that out of 182 barangays, only 15% or 28 barangays have constituted the BESWMC.
However, Reyes said that as of July 31, 76 barangay councils have constituted their BESWMC from 46 in February.
City Administrator Zuleika Lopez confirmed that not all barangays have BESWMC as the creation of this body was affected by the holding of the barangay elections in May 2018.
“The new barangay administrators were not able to immediately constitute or reconstitute the BSWMC,” she said.
Lopez added that to ensure that more barangay councils would establish their BESWMC, the city government has communicated with the president of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC), Egar Ibuyan Sr., “to mandate all the Punong Barangay to already institute the solid waste management committee,” Lopez said.
Lopez said the partnership between the barangays and the CENRO is important to implement the solid waste management plan on the ground.
She added that they will also ask the help of the DILG because the agency has the funding to be used in capacitating the barangay captains.
Lopez further added that the city government will help the barangays in the establishment of the body. “The ideal is all the 182 shall constitute the BSWMC because they are our partners. The CENRO only has so many personnel, we can’t police the entire (city),” she said, although she is yet to provide the timeline on when can all barangays create BESWMC.
