Mayors push zero-waste management campaign

MANILA, Philippines – The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) has pledged to support the zero-waste management campaign and transform garbage dumps into eco-parks to control climate change that results into natural calamities.

LMP national president Mayor Ramon Guico Jr. said mayors nationwide have made a commitment to comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9003, which provides for an ecological solid waste management program.

“We just need to sustain our efforts in raising awareness of other mayors to be more sensitive to climate change in order to build our local capacities to weather any storm that might hit us in the future,” said Guico.

The mayors discussed during the LMP’s 2009 General Assembly issues ranging from climate change, disaster risk reduction, health concerns, economic development to population management.

Guico called on future local officials to continue the reforms they have started, especially on climate change and disaster risk reduction.

He hoped that the new LMP officers would sustain the reforms their administration had already put in place.

“We reengineered the LMP in order to make it a responsive and responsible association of Philippine municipalities,” said Guico, on his third and last term as Binalonan mayor.

Guico said the future LMP administration should focus on climate change, disaster risk reduction and local government response to calamities.

The mayor said the nation suffered the fury of typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” that devastated Metro Manila and other Luzon provinces.

“Evident from these two destructive typhoons were our utter neglect to protect the environment that resulted in severe climate change,” Guico added.

He said the next leaders should continue to serve as inspiration to their respective constituents.

“I urge the new local leaders of 2010 not to lose sight of the fact that our job is to inspire and drive our colleagues and constituents to excel so we can build better nation and effective local governance,” Guico noted. –Cecile Suerte Felipe (The Philippine Star)