Navotas deputizes street sweepers as enforcers

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco has deputized the town’s 500 street sweepers as enforcers of the newly created environmental sanitation group Task Force SISID, which stands for Sanitasyon Iangat, Sagipin Ilog at Dagat.

Under the program, the mayor empowered the street sweepers to apprehend individuals who indiscriminately dump their garbage in waterways, coastal areas and rivers.

Offenders would be charged for violating Municipal Ordinance 2003-12, or the municipality’s anti-littering law, and would be fined P200 to P1,000, depending on the gravity of their infraction.

Apart from the fines, violators would also be obliged to attend seminars and lectures on the existing municipal ordinances or render community service, or both.

"This is to maintain cleanliness and to educate and inform the public on the importance of proper garbage disposal in our effort to lessen the impact of flooding in our municipality," Jerry Doringo, Navotas public information officer, said.

According to municipal engineer Lito Serrano, floods recently experienced in Navotas should not be blamed fully on the high tide and rains, but also on garbage that clogged major waterways hindering the free flow of water to the pumping stations.

Serrano said that on M. Naval street alone, at least 10 truckloads of garbage and other discarded materials are collected everytime flash floods subside.

Tiangco said the local government has undertaken all necessary measures to address the flood problem in the town, including the construction of the 11 pumping stations in the low-lying barangays.

"I call on my fellow Navoteños to be vigilant and sensitive in this undertaking. We have to maintain cleanliness and discipline ourselves to guarantee our health and sanitation and to ensure that our flood control projects, such as the pumping stations, would not be hampered but constantly functional," Tiangco said. – Pete Laude