Beyond seminars and training programs

In October 2003, Dagupeños were horrified and outraged at the sight of the uncollected garbage that had literally flooded the City of Dagupan.

No, the city’s garbage collectors did not go on strike then. That day, ironically, was the first day of the city government’s belated implementation of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on December 20, 2000 and December 12, 2000, respectively, and approved by President Arroyo on January 26, 2001.

R.A. 9003 mandates, among others, waste segregation in every household, the recycling and composting of wastes in the barangay level and the collection of residuals-- wastes that cannot be recycled or composted—by the municipal or city government.

There is no doubt that the city government only had the people’s welfare in mind when it implemented RA 9003. It was in keeping with its plan of transforming Dagupan into a healthy and an environment-friendly city; a city that would ensure the protection of public health and environment.

The right thing to do

Last year, the city hall announced that it was ready to implement the recommendations of the University of the Philippines Center for Local and Regional Governance (UP-CLRG) for a top-to-bottom revamp of the city government to make it more efficient and effective in the delivery of services to the people of Dagupan City.

Four years ago, the UP-CLRG found in a management evaluation that the city government was totally disorganized and inadequate in responding to the needs of the people and to the demands of public service. It suggested the adoption of a lean and mean organizational structure that would clearly define each office’s functions and responsibilities and save the city from wasting millions of pesos of the people’s money every year for the salaries of employees who just sit in their offices all day and wait for the sunset.

Why the reorganization plan has not been implemented yet more than one year now after the city hall announcement is not clear to me. And no one has bothered to ask why.

Nature's wrath

I was shocked to see on television the extent of devastation that hurricane Katrina eft in Louisiana and Mississippi. I couldn’t believe it was happening to America, which is supposed to have everything in the world to protect its people.

I was especially touched to see Americans wading in waist-deep floodwaters and waving white clothes and placards from their rooftops to ask for help.

In one instance, a young mother was helplessly clutching her five-day-old baby on a roadside until the police saw her and took them to a safer place. In another scene, a teary-eyed mother, who obviously didn’t know what to do and where to go, was hugging her sick three-year-old boy as they sat in a stairway.

Everybody was tired, confused, scared and hungry.