Waste board sues barangay captain for violating law

The Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board, through the Cebu Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Team, has filed at the prosecutor's office a criminal complaint against Apas barangay captain Clemente Rosales for allegedly violating the Solid Waste Management Act.

Last August 17, a CESET officer apprehended Rosales for alleged failure to segregate solid waste at source, in compliance with City Ordinance No. 2031, for a "no segregation, no collection" policy.

The ordinance prohibits the disposal of wastes that are not segregated as biodegradable, non-biodegradable, reusable, hazardous, and bulky wastes.

Violators shall be punished by a fine of not less than P1,000 or by an imprisonment of not less than one month to not more than six months or both at the discretion of the court.

But a violator may choose to settle the case by paying the P500 out-of-court compromise fee upon approval of the city mayor or any authorized representative.

Bimboy delos Santos, the CESET officer who caught the barangay official, said he issued Rosales a citation ticket but gave the latter the available option of paying P500, for an out-of-court settlement, within seven days from apprehension.

However, Rosales refused or failed to do so, said delos Santos prompting the city authorities to bring the case up for judicial action.

In this connection, the city's Public Information Office disclosed that three months since the implementation of the ordinance, a total of 3968 citation tickets were already issued with barangay Guadalupe topping the list of violators.

The PIO also said there were 560 violators who were allowed to pay the P500 compromise fee each, giving the city total revenues of P280,000 from this source.

Another 594 violators have been given warning, some 217 cases were already sent to court, while 3,191 cases have been readied for filing. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan