Now that the excitement of the elections has settled down, let’s buckle up to work by cleaning up the mess left by the electoral campaign. It is the politician’s responsibility to approach post-campaign clean up with as much fervor as their team did when they planned to paste, stick or hang the campaign paraphernalia. The banners and posters look so glum in some areas exposed to the scorching summer heat and battered by the evening rain. We don’t think politicians still want to see their grinning faces pasted all over town now that they got their coveted post.
We assume there will be truckloads of garbage composed of posters, tarpaulins and plastics in the downtown area alone. A local environment group has appealed to the politicians to dispose trash properly, specifically, not to incinerate these. Although there are already some who started cleaning their own garbage a day after the elections, we still see so much litter in the streets, an eyesore in an otherwise clean and well-kept city.
Win or lose, the Comelec reminded them that it is their duty to take down their own campaign paraphernalia and not wait for the city government to do this for them. A week before the mid-term elections, the city council passed a resolution urging local and national candidates to conduct clean-up operations after election day which is in sync with City Ordinance No. 0371-10 or the Davao City Ecological Solid Waste Management Ordinance of 2009.
This is going to be the first test of our new set of leaders. When the voters see how their candidates take care of their garbage, it sends a signal that these leaders can also clean the metaphorical garbage that hounds our city, and our country. Davaoenos really look forward to reclaiming the clean streets that we had prior to the elections. And we hope that this happens soonest.
