MAGANES: Waste management of Villasis; SM City Rosales’ PR Officer

I had a talk with Villasis Mayor Libradita Go-Abrenica lately regarding the implementation of Ecological and Solid Waste Management Act of 2011 or Republic Act No. 9003. I told her that Villasis was included in the list of 27 municipalities of Pangasinan that are not complying with the said law and ha there is a move from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to file a case with the Ombudsman against them.

I told her that the news was aired over Balitang Amianan of GMA last week, a time when she and her husband former Mayor Nonato S. Abrenica were in Australia for vacation.

Mayor Dita was surprised to know about the news and she said that the municipal government has not yet received any notice to that effect. She then briefed me on the waste management activities the town is doing.

She said the town has a controlled dumpsite at sitio Lepanto in Capulaan village with an area of more or less one-hectare. “We cannot construct a sanitary land fill like that in Urdaneta City because it is expensive. But we are doing our best to have waste segregation. Only those wastes that are biodegradable are dumped in the controlled dumpsite,” Mayor Dita said.

She said that the municipal government is set to buy a lot adjacent to the controlled dumpsite for material recovery facility (MRF). Well, I told her that the move is commendable especially on her implementation of anti-littering activities in the whole town of Villasis. She smiled back with a trace of approval on her face.

The implementation of RA No. 9003 has been the problem of many municipalities in the whole country. The framers of the law maybe have good intention of preserving our environment and of ensuring ecological waste management but then they have not at all thought of the financial capabilities of the local governments.

The law speaks about sanitary landfill, a modernized version of a dumpsite, but how much does it cost? Urdaneta City has already constructed its sanitary landfill at the cost of P250 million- a loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). Urdaneta City by standard and being the premier city in Region I can afford to pay the amortization of that loan. And how about the poor municipalities whose only sources of big incomes are the share from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA)?

While RA 9003 is a noble law, how many municipalities and cities in the country could really comply with it? At this point in time, there is a need to review that law and DENR should also reconsider its operations of issuing “strike one, strike two and strike three” policies to the municipalities.

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Last August 2011, I met a smiling lady at SM City Rosales- so young, vibrant and soft-spoken. She was introduced to me as the new PR Officer of SM City Rosales who filled up the position of Ms. Gerlou Rosario who resigned due to some personal reasons.

“So young!,” I told myself thinking that with her fragile look she might not able to perform the rigorous works of being a PR Officer of SM City Rosales. But as months went on, that fragile look seemed to be misleading. There is a depth in her dealing with the media people. Her smiles could move thousand miles. She was after all bubbly when you are already close and intimate with her.

I am speaking of Ms. Roselle Gale, the new PR Officer of SM City Rosales. In her early months in office, Brando Cortez (a columnist of this paper) and I have the chance to be with her in many mall’s activities. She asked for advise from us such as on how to deal with media people and on the many facets of public and human relations. We gave her our bits of knowledge and followed it up of what she’s doing on many occasions.

Roselle was then a neophyte in the PR world having just graduated from the Colegio de Dagupan. What was admirable in her was her desire to learn and approaching a lot of people whom she thought could help her. Of course, she could not be compared with Gerlou Rosario who had also endeared herself with media people of Pangasinan. But Roselle is learning fast. She’s intelligent and a gold mine of SM City Rosales.

I am looking forward to seeing her someday climb the ladder as one of the best PR officers in the country.

Keep it up Roselle! A nice lady will always be nice at the sight of her friends. That’s how we look at you.

( For comments, email me at emperorvirgil@yahoo.com)