CLEAN-UP. Multi-sector volunteers join the massive and simultaneous clearing and clean-up of garbage and illegal structures that breach into the Zapote River, during the kick-off of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (DENR) “#Battle for Manila Bay” Rehabilitation Program, Jan. 27, 2019. (Photo by Dennis Abrina)
BACOOR CITY, Cavite -- Thousands of local government officials, employees and volunteers joined the massive and simultaneous clean-up drive and the launching event for the five-year rehabilitation project dubbed “#Battle for Manila Bay” spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here on Sunday morning.
At 7 a.m., Cavite Governor Jesus Crispin Remulla and City Mayor Lani Mercado Revilla led the launching program at the Barangay Zapote V multi-purpose plaza and rallied Caviteños on the focal cleanup along the heavily-polluted Zapote River, the riverbanks of which are home to hundreds of informal settlers.
"These are our collective efforts and our commitment together with 23 cities and town mayors and barangays here in Cavite para maibabalik po natin ang ganda ng Manila Bay sa tulong po ng bawat Caviteño (to bring back the beauty of Manila Bay through the help of every Caviteño)," Remulla told the Philippine News Agency in an interview.
Revilla said Bacoor City, along with other Cavite cities and towns, supports the program of President Rodrigo Duterte and the DENR for the weekly cleanup. She said Bacoor has been part of this initiative since she became a mayor, as shown by the city’s yearly participation in the International Coastal Clean-up Drive.
"We have the components to the relocation program already where we sent out around 1,500 families living in danger zones and from the coastal barangays," she added, citing that a number of residents in 10 coastal villages, especially illegal settlers in riverbanks, are included in the relocation.
Informal settlers in Zapote, Talaba, Maliksi, Kaingen, Digman, Tabing Dagat, Alima, Sinenguelasan and Mabolo villages here now number more than 10,000 families and some of them have been relocated to Naic town.
They occupy areas that are only 10 meters from the shoreline and some live in houses on stilts in rivers and other danger zones.
"From these clean-up operations, we need to record how many tons of garbage that we have collected in our respective areas and this would be until December this year," said Eloisa Rozul, Department of the Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge for Cavite.
In General Trias City, Mayor Antonio Ferrer, together with City Environmental and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) personnel and 33 village chiefs, participated in clean-up activities along Ilang-Ilang River and the Rio Grande River in Barangay Manggahan-San Francisco area and Tanza River in Barangays San Juan 1 and 2 and Tejero.
Noveleta town local officials, employees and volunteers showed up for the clean-up drive in the Ilang-Ilang River, which also flows in this town, and the massive cleaning of the shorelines in Barangays San Rafael III and San Rafael IV, as early as 6 a.m.
Meanwhile, Cavite Police Provincial Director Senior Supt. William Segun also led hundreds of police personnel who are deployed in the seven cities and 16 towns to participate in the clean-up campaign and ensure peace and order during the Manila Bay coastal upkeep event.
Cavite Provincial Environmental and Natural Resources Office personnel and members of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection and 74 village officials and residents joined the Manila Bay coastal cleanup.
The event was held in compliance with the directives of DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu to intensify information and awareness campaign, law enforcement and solid waste management particularly on waste reduction on household and livestock wastes that pollute the rivers of Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon) connecting to Manila Bay.
In gracing the opening of the new DENR Calabarzon Regional Office in Calamba City last Friday, Cimatu ordered the creation of a Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) to be based in this city to contain the problem on informal settlers in Barangay Zapote 5, who are dumping their wastes into the Zapote River.
This city’s environment and natural resources officer Rolly Bocalan also reported on the tons of garbage collected by volunteers in the waterways, rivers and shores of Bacoor.
DENR-Calabarzon has enjoined the public and the region’s inhabitants for the massive and extensive cleanup in bodies of water, especially the river systems and tributaries that flow towards the Manila Bay area.
It designated Bacoor City as one of the meet-up points in Sunday’s launching event, along with the Malinta Elementary School in Barangay Anos-Malinta in Los Baños, Laguna for the Laguna de Bay shorelines and Southville 9 in Barangay Pinugay, Baras, Rizal for the Boso-Boso River.
DENR officials also encouraged the public through their advocacies “Tayo ang Kalikasan” and “Manila Bayanihan Para sa Kalinisan” to take part in this “new beginning”. (Dennis Abrina/PNA)
