Groups say it's time for post-election clean-up

It's clean-up time.

After the crunch time in campaigning and the mad scramble to put up and distribute candidates' posters and other campaign materials, several concerned groups say it's time to clean up the debris left behind by the country’s first automated elections.

At Flora Ilagan High School along V. Luna Avenue, Quezon City, environmental groups led by EcoWaste Coalition together with their volunteers, green-minded beauty queens, and local residents jump-started the clean-up drive.

EcoWaste Coalition said the school had the largest volume of campaign trash in the metro.

“We bat for eco-clean up because it is not enough just to rid the surroundings of campaign discards and then transfer pollution to other communities where dumpsites operate despite known hazards to human and environmental health,” said the group’s coordinator Rei Panaligan.

The “eco-clean up” was held with the two-fold objective of promoting the removal of campaign remnants without delay and then segregated and then recycled the group said on an article in their blog.

“By choosing to segregate and recycle the campaign discards, we prevent resources such as paper, plastic and wood from being wasted often through dumping or burning,” said Kris Psyche Resus, Miss Philippines-Earth 2010 in a statement.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has also started clearing operations to clean up the capital region and seven national roads of campaign paraphernalia.

MMDA chair Oscar Inocentes said he has dispatched sidewalk clearing operations groups all over the region to collect the materials, an effort which he estimates will take five days.

Inocentes urged local government units to carry out similar clearing operations in their respective areas, saying that they can expect the MMDA’s assistance should they do so.

Some 1,400 soldiers also conducted their own clean-up campaign along EDSA two days after the election.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has said they will help clean up Metro Manila of campaign paraphernalia, and personnel from national headquarters Camp Aguinaldo, Fort Bonifacio, Villamor Airbase, and the Philippine Navy headquarters in Manila have been deployed for the task.

Other units will also be tasked to conduct clean-up operations in other key cities in the country, said deputy military spokesman Major Enrico Ileto.

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