Rama allows Ceset to have half of fines

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama agreed that the fines collected from persons who will be caught indiscriminately throwing their garbage in the city will be divided between the city and the apprehending officers.

“No problem about that, I will support the move to amend the existing ordinance,” the mayor said when asked by The FREEMAN about the plan of Councilor Eduardo “Edu” Rama to amend the sharing scheme of the collected fines.

As head of the City Council’s committee on public services, Councilor Rama believed that increasing the share of the apprehending officers would encourage them to do their job better.

The existing ordinance only allows the members of the Cebu City Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Team (Ceset) to get 20 percent out of the collected fines.

Usually those are apprehended for indiscriminate throwing of garbage are asked to pay P500 fine, which means the apprehending officer will only get P100.

Mayor Rama, in a recent press conference at the City Hall, reminded City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva not to delay the release of the shares of the apprehending officers so as not to discourage them from helping the city implement City Ordinances 1361 and 2031.

City Ordinance 1361 provides that the constituents shall clean their surroundings of any wastes while City Ordinance 2031 required that garbage should be segregated first before they will be collected by garbage trucks.

The Ceset members had been instructed to issue citation tickets to barangays whose officials fail to strictly implement the ordinance that only segregated garbage shall be loaded to the garbage truck.

Biodegradable wastes are collected Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while non-biodegradable ones are collected Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday. Recyclable materials are collected on Sundays. — (FREEMAN)