Marquez chided on garbage

Some 3,000 residents and members of non-government organizations conducted a rally outside the Parañaque City Hall Monday morning to denounce the alleged failure of Mayor Joey Marquez’s administration to solve the city’s garbage problem.

The rallyists, who came from different barangays, converged at the barangay hall of San Dionisio early in the morning and marched all the way to the city hall in Barangay San Antonio Valley.

Among the protesters was the Caucus of Lawyers for Erap’s Abrupt Resignation (CLEAR) who said several of their members were Parañaquenos affected by the garbage problem.

The main complaint of the rallyists was the dumping of trash at a grassy unused portion inside the Himlayan ng Parañaque cemetery in Barangay San Dionisio which they claimed has desecrated the burial place.

The rallyists said the city government should have long reprimanded the city’s lone garbage contractor, Uni-Mega Transport Corp., for their poor garbage collection service but appeared to continue coddling the contractor with the reported extension of the firm’s contract for another year for 2001.

Violence reportedly erupted in the course of the rally outside city hall when policemen allegedly hit some of the rallyists with their nightsticks. The Star tried but failed to get the comment of Marquez on the issue. – Rainier Allan Ronda