BACOLOD City – Anyone intentionally dumping waste just anywhere do not only violate the local ordinance against littering.
They also go against a national law, the violation of which comes with heavier penalties, Councilor Caesar Distrito warned.
Assorted garbage were seen dumped in the middle of Lopez Jaena Street fronting a hotel before dawn on Thursday last week.
“Ang mga basura nga ordinaryo gani kon ihaboy mo is already a violation of the anti-littering ordinance,” stressed the chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on laws, ordinances and good government.
Violators of the city ordinance, according to the councilor, also breach the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (Republic Act 9003).
City Ordinance 596, series of 2012 prohibits the “indiscriminate throwing and dumping of garbage, rubbish or any kind of waste in open or public spaces.”
It also mandates “all residential and commercial or business establishments to clean and maintain the cleanliness of their frontage and surroundings.”
Penalties for the commission of prohibited acts under the ordinance include fines of up to P500 or a one-day community service at the Department of Public Services (DPS) for individual violators.
Owners of establishment violators face fines of up to P2,500 or a five-day community service at the DPS.
On the other hand, violators of RA 9003 face fines ranging from P300 to P1,000,000, and community service or imprisonment of up to six years – all depending on the gravity of the violations.
Distrito urged the City Legal Office to file charges against anyone proven to have violated these local and national laws. Violators may be discovered via security camera footage, he said.
Anyone who improperly dumps garbage destroys not only the environment but the image of the city as well, said Distrito.
He said he could not say if there was any unknown motive in the dumping of waste in the middle of Lopez Jaena Street but the fact remains that it was an illegal dump and thus a violation of the laws./PN
