EDSA Shrine litterbugs produce 5 truckloads of trash

Two days of rallying at EDSA has generated five truckloads of garbage.

The San Juan municipal government yesterday started cleaning up the EDSA Shrine where thousands of supporters of jailed former President Joseph Estrada are holding their version of people power.

Councilor Rolando Bernardo, head of the town’s solid waste management team, said that by noon yesterday, they had collected five truckloads of garbage at the rally site.

Bernardo said the order to clean the rally site came from outgoing San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada, himself a detainee like his father for plunder charges. The councilor visited Jinggoy in his cell at Camp Crame Thursday night.

The spontaneous rally, which entered its third day yesterday following the arrest and jailing of the Estradas Wednesday, has resulted in the pile-up of garbage around the protest site, the Our Lady of EDSA Shrine in Mandaluyong City.

The accumulated garbage prompted Mayor Estrada to order Bernardo to clean up the site. The councilor in turn dispatched three trucks and 40 street sweepers to the site as early as 8 a.m. yesterday.

"Mayor Estrada noticed garbage scattered around the EDSA Shrine and gave me the clean-up order because many of our constituents are already there," he said.

According to Bernardo, they are bringing their cleanliness campaign to the EDSA Shrine because "people who are showing they are one with President Estrada, should also show they are one with cleanliness."

Bernardo said they were supposed to start picking up garbage at the rally site Wednesday night but refrained from doing so, because "there were so many people."

The San Juan municipal government also placed 100 sacks around the vicinity to provide proper disposal containers for people and prevent them from leaving their trash just anywhere.

And to kill the foul smell from the portalets and walls where the rallyists urinate, Bernardo said they would be spraying these areas with industrial-strength deodorizing chemicals.

"They ought to be grateful because we are taking initiatives in clearing the surroundings of EDSA Shrine. During people power II, they left the place dirty and... the Metro aides to pick up after them," the councilor said.

Estrada served as San Juan mayor for 17 years. His son Jinggoy’s third three-year term is about to end, but another son, Joseph Victor, is running for the same position in the May elections.