A bill filed at the House of Representatives on Tuesday seeks to hold litterers accountable by requiring them to clean canals and waterways.
House Bill No. 10841, filed by Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, requires offenders to render community service, including cleaning clogged creeks and drainage systems, as part of efforts to discourage them from throwing rubbish.
Under the measure, litterers will render one day of community service for a first violation, two days for a second and three days for subsequent offenses, with each day defined as eight hours. Authorities must supervise any canal cleaning activity, with violators required to wear protective gear. Medically unfit offenders will be assigned alternative tasks.
‘The imposition of community service in the form of canal cleaning is meant to make violators understand that proper waste disposal is far easier and almost effortless compared to the difficult, labor-intensive and costly task of clearing canals and drainage systems clogged by irresponsible dumping of trash,’ Tiangco said in Filipino.
The Philippines faces perennial flooding, worsened by trash clogging major riverways and canals. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said it removed nearly 750 tons of waste from a Parañaque waterway last week alone.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had called trash clogging Metro Manila’s waterways ‘critical’ as the country reeled from persistent monsoon rains in recent weeks.
On Monday, monsoon rains dumped 201.7 millimeters, nearly half the 24-hour rainfall recorded when Tropical Storm Ondoy pummeled the country in 2009, according to state weather bureau data.