CALAMBA CITY, Laguna –Joint law enforcers from the city’s police force, Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) arrested four suspected garbage dumpers while throwing bags of residual wastes at the side of the National Highway in the hot spring resort village of Pansol here Monday.
Supt. Reynaldo M. Maclang, the Calamba City police chief, said the police and environment law enforcers arrested the four suspects for violation of City Ordinance No. 01-273 Section 54 and Republic Act 9003 or the “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.”
Maclang identified the four suspects as Rolly Salvador Llorca, a 27 year-old resort caretaker; Jesus Baldevia Oliquiano, the 23 year-old driver; Benen Salvador Llorca, 18; and Melvin Garcia Landicho, 18, all Pansol village residents.
He said the suspects and the pieces of evidence were brought to the police station on complaints of CENRO members Rolando Barecanosa Caparas and Mamerto De Leon Marella.
Initial investigation disclosed that CENRO and some POSO officers were on duty when they saw an Isuzu Elf truck bearing plate No. RJZ-537 that was parked by the side of the National Highway in Pansol Village.
They also saw that the suspects alighted from the Elf truck and later off-loaded assorted garbage bags and dumped these by the roadside.
This prompted the patrolling CENRO, POSO officers and responding police to arrest the four garbage dumpers and recovered from them several garbage bags containing residual wastes.
In a follow up interview, Jeffrey Rodriguez, POSO officer-in-charge said law enforcers like the CENRO and POSO are mandated to apprehend individuals who violate the city ordinance and the national law on ecological solid waste management.
Rodriguez said cases are to be filed against the law breakers especially that POSO is intensifying its clearing operations against illegal structures and road obstructions, including litters and garbage strewn in the city’s environs.
The prohibited acts also include littering, throwing, dumping of waste matters in public places, such as roads, sidewalks, canals, esteros or parks, and establishment, or causing or permitting the same.
Violators are dealt with under the ordinance or the national law’s penal provisions. (Saul Pa-a/PNA)
