Marcos wants cleanliness to be part of LGUs performance guarantees

President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. tasked concerned agencies to include cleanliness in the performance guarantees of local government units across the country.

This as Marcos called on every barangay to depict changes as Filipinos do not deserve dirty, dingy, and dark communities. Marcos urged LGUs to be part of the nationwide clean-up program, ''Kalinisan sa Bagong Pilipinas,'' which aims to clean up all roads, canals, markets and schools.

''Sa usaping ito, iniutos ko ang mga kinauukulang ahensiya na isama ang kalinisan sa mga performance guarantees ng mga local na pamahalaan, ang paggawad ng mas malaking premyo at insentibo sa mga LGUs na kahanga-hanga ang mga nagawa sa kalinisan, ang pambansang paligsahan para sa Gulayan sa Barangay, ang paggamit ng Motor Vehicle User's Charge para sa pagpapailaw ng mga pambansang kalsada at lagusan, ang pagpapaigting ng kampanya laban sa single-use plastic, at ang pagrerenda  sa tila mala-riot na paggamit ng tarpaulin,'' Marcos said in a video message.

(I have tasked concerned agencies to include cleanliness in the performance guarantees of local government units, give benefits and incentives to LGUs that have measures to ensure cleanliness, the nationwide contest for Gulayan sa Barangay, and the use of Motor Vehicle User's Charge to lighten roads, and for those who have intensified single-use plastic in communities.)

Marcos emphasized that each citizen has a role to play in ensuring cleanliness and orderliness in communities.

''We cannot deploy sweepers who will follow each citizen around and pick up every trash that is thrown. We cannot spend tens of billions a year collecting garbage whose volume could have been reduced through individual daily reuse and recycling,'' Marcos said.

''At the end of the day, it is not only modern equipment that will win the war against waste.
It will be won by citizens equipped with the habit not to litter and whose allegiance to a clean and green community has become second nature to them,'' he added. 

He said that solid waste infrastructure must be founded on solid will, not just by the government, but most importantly, by the people for it to work. 

Under the new program, the Marcos administration aims “to raise awareness and encourage participation among Filipino citizens on environmental responsibility through proper solid waste management.”

The program also seeks “to encourage local government units to invest in programs, projects and activities on solid waste management and ecological practices,” as well as “set up a recognition system for the cleanest local government units.”  —LDF, GMA Integrated News