The Davao City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) has intensified information dissemination among stall vendors at the Toril Public Market starting Monday, November 7 before its personnel will start apprehending erring vendors who fail to segregate their waste and don’t have Cenro certificates on Thursday, November 10.

Orly Bajo Limpangog of Cenro, during the Go Clean, Go Green sa DCDR program of 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) aired Tuesday, November 8, said about 15 Cenro personnel made rounds of the Toril Public Market building 2 stall vendors and informed them of it last Monday.

“Part sa implementation sa solid waste management sa Davao gisugdan nato ang information dissemination hangtud sa Wednesday. Sa Thursday, apprehension na ta (It’s part of the solid waste management of the Davao City government, we started this yesterday and we will continue until Wednesday. We will start apprehending on Thursday),” he said.

Limpangog said operating without a Cenro certificate will be fined P5,000 and vendors caught without properly segregating, labeling, and covering their garbage will also be penalized P5,000.

He said paying P10,000 for non-compliance with the city ordinance on solid waste management implementation would be a waste when they could just comply and save their money.

Limpangog said there are over 600 stall vendors at the Toril Public Market, from the fish to meat, fruits, vegetable sections, dry goods, and eatery sections, and they will ensure everybody is informed about the strict implementation and the apprehension that will be taking place.

He said the Toril Public Market supervisor complained about stall owners not heeding their reminders.

“Ingon sa market supervisor, gahi og ulo ang ubang mga vendors. Ginabadlong na, gi-orient na, wala’y compliance. Ato na gyud tinud-on ni, ang mag-violate kay dako ang penalty, maski pa duna’y naglabay lang basura ug diha sa ilang premises (The market supervisor said some vendors were headstrong. Their attention has been called, they were oriented, and still, there’s no compliance. We will enforce it, violators will pay huge fines, even if somebody just irresponsibly throws garbage within their premises),” Limpangog added.

Each stall owner, according to him, must prepare three garbage containers with covers and labels. A Cenro certificate will also have to be presented upon inspection.

From Toril, Cenro will also conduct a solid waste management information drive and implementation in other public markets in the city.

He lauded the solid waste management efforts of Barangay Lizada in Toril.

Barangay Lizada chairperson Remegio Licera said they have been enforcing the ordinance regulating the sale, distribution, and use of single-use plastics in Davao City (City Ordinance No. 0500-21) and held orientation to deputized barangay enforcers.

In their barangay, the collection of plastic bottles by purok is held every Tuesday and Thursday while they collect plastic bottles from establishments every Friday. Garbage collection is set on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Licera said they have oriented their residents to bring their garbage to pick-up points of Cenro but they also use their mini dump truck to collect garbage from the interior of their barangay that can’t be reached by Cenro dump trucks.

Barangay Lizada’s collected plastic bottles are being bought by a private company and the income from the sale is used to fund their information campaign paraphernalia. CIO