Last week, I have conducted a survey about the community issues that the citizens want to address in Barangay Pio Cruzcosa, Calumpit, Bulacan which is where I am currently living. As I see the result, the survey shows that the number one problem which needs to be addressed is the collection of waste in every household. This week, I have been given a chance to interview some local officials to see if they have the same or different answers from my previous analysis conducted on the citizens.
Barangay Officials are the ones who are keeping our community in peace and organized. Their voice and viewpoints are really important because they can take action and fix the problems in a specific community. Forthwith, I asked the Barangay Sangguniang Kabataan Chairman and one of the Barangay Kagawads to answer the same question that I asked my previous respondents.
Unlike the previous survey in which I used google forms to get the answers of my 10 chosen respondents, I used messenger for chatting and face-to-face interview since I just need two important respondents for the study. I gave the respondents the freedom to choose what method they want to answer the interview for them to further elaborate their answers in a more comfortable manner. The goal of the study is to compare whether the interviewee will get the same answers or issues and also to know the perspective or notion of the barangay officials about the problems that need to be addressed.
Table 1. Profile of the Local Officials.
Table 2. The Issues that the Local Officials Want to Address Immediately
The first respondent emphasizes two main problems in our barangay which are flooding and malnutrition. He even gave a solution for the problems he stated. According to him, floods became one of the problems in Barangay Pio due to improper throwing of garbage in the water irrigation site. Many irresponsible people are throwing their garbage in the water because there is no consistent collection of trash in every household. Those wastes are also causing dirty and malodorous water that may result in different diseases.
"Dahil sa maling pagtatapon ng mga tao sa aming barangay, naiipon ang mga basura sa may patubig na nagdadahilan ng mabahong amoy at maduming patubig. Ito rin ang isa sa dahilan kung bakit palaging binabaha sa lugar namin." SK Chairman said.
From what I know about the said issue, it is really one of the problems in our barangay. People see throwing garbage in the water irrigation site as a normal action because there are no sanctions for those who will be caught in the act. Furthermore, it is not just the elected officials' duty to make the community clean and eco-friendly but also the citizens living in it.
Photo 1. The photo was taken by Angelica Toyama in Barangay Pio Cruzcosa last April 2, 2022. The water irrigation site became a dumpsite because of so much garbage thrown by the citizens.
Moreover, he also wants to address the malnutrition in our barangay because there are so many children who are not healthy. He stated that based on his own experience of visiting houses to give help to those who are in need, he can see that there are a lot of children who are not having enough food to eat, vitamins, and other necessities.
"Sa dami ng bata na nakikita ko tuwing naglilibot at nag-aabot ng tulong ang Brgy. madami pa ring bata ang kailangan ng tulong. Makikita mo sa kanila ang kakulangan ng sapat na pagkain, kulang sa timbang, mga gamot (vitamins) at pagkain."
My interpretation of the said issue is it is because of teenage pregnancy. As what it is mentioned, there are a lot of children who are malnourished since their family cannot sustain their needs. Based on my observations, there are a lot of teenagers in our barangay who are having a child at a very young age which causes them to not go to school anymore and focus on finding a job that can give them enough money for their everyday lives. But because they are just teenagers and have not finished their studies, they are just settling for minimum earnings and others are still living with their parents.
For the second respondent which is a Barangay Kagawad, she gives emphasis that waste management should be a priority in our barangay. It is also connected to the committee that she was handling which is the environment committee of the Barangay Pio Cruzcosa. As the first respondent, improper waste management is what she also wants to focus on because it has a big impact on the community where we lived in. Inadequate facility where we can put the wastes of our barangay is one of the causes of the said problem. She said that even if we have an Eco-Center which is located near our covered court, we still cannot accommodate all the trashes of the barangay since we have a lot of waste. Also, the Eco-Center only collects biodegradable wastes while the Municipality of Calumpit collects non-biodegradable wastes only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Some people are choosing to burn the trash but she explained that it is prohibited in our law which is the Republic Act No. 9003 or also known as "Ecological Waste Management Act of 2000". According to the Chapter VI, Section 48 of the law, whoever was caught burning the trash will be penalized. The large volume of waste is also a problem because every barangay does not have a Material Recovery Facility (MRF). MRF is a sorting place of the recyclable materials that can be sold in the market (Zafar, 2019). Additionally, the dumpsite located in Sapang Bayan was temporarily closed due to the large volume of waste which cannot be accommodated anymore. Even the municipality is having a hard time solving the said issue.
To sum it up, the local officials and the citizens of the Barangay Pio Cruzcosa have answers that are connected with each other. The Barangay Officials saw an additional problem in the community which is the malnutrition that is intertwined with teenage pregnancy. Also, they are having similar answers about the collection of waste in every household. Since they see the same problem in our community, it simply means that the problem of improper waste management should be addressed immediately.
References:
Zafar, S. (2019, April 10). Introduction to materials recovery facility. EcoMENA. Retrieved April 6, 2022, from https://www.ecomena.org/materials-recovery-facility/
Republic Act No. 9003: Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. (2001, January 26). Retrieved April 7, 2022, from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2001/01/26/republic-act-no-9003-s-2001/
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