Barangay Jesus de la Pena towards an innovative environmental awareness

Marikina City is famous not only for its great reputation of shoe industry but also for its incomparable cleanliness and orderliness among other cities in metro manila. A small barangay situated near the Marikina River, rests barangay Jesus de la Pena. Barangay Captain Manuel “tarangka” Sarmiento is the newly elected Captain and the author of various innovative projects for the welfare of the community and environment.
Free “Hakot kuyagot” project was one of the initiatives of this competitive barangay.
The morning of September 26, 2011, I visited our barangay and interviewed Capt. Manuel Sarmiento. I started to ask questions about the programs implemented by the barangay. He stated these programs and projects:

1. Used cooking oil collection
2. Clean up Drive
3. Waste segregation
4. Libre sipsip ng Pozo Negro
5. Eco savers program
6. Hakot Kuyagot

Used cooking oil collection
As captain Sarmiento describes, this project aims to conserve the Marikina River by collecting used cooking oil from every households and business establishments within the community. I asked him what is the relevance of used cooking oil to our river, He answered, “It is because used cooking oil is a major pollutant to our river since it is very easy and often discarded improperly. Almost all of the drainages lead to the river so we decided to lessen the pollution by creating this program”. This project is actually initiated by the City hall and it is done once a month to all of the 16 barangays throughout Marikina city. 5 persons use a roving truck for the collection early in the morning. The collected used cooking oil will be handled by the CEMO for recycling and proper disposal.
Clean up Drive
The clean up drive project is done twice a month. This project was initiated by the Marikina city office and passed down to the 16 barangays in Marikina city to execute a simultaneous cleaning operation. This project aims to clean esteros,kanals,eskinitas and major streets to create an environment free of wastes and possible breeding place of dengue carrying mosquitoes. Every Saturday, as early as 7 am in the morning, barangay employees and staffs, religious groups, community church leaders, NGO’s and other concerned citizens assembled to the barangay hall and start their cleaning around the community. These participants will go in each street by the help of a roving truck. They use a variety of tools such as the weed cutter, walis-tingting, dust pans, large trash bins and other needed materials for cleaning. Volunteers and all who participates to this project render 4 hours of community work on the cleanup day.



Eco savers
Eco savers program is the collection of solid wastes which are conducted once a week which is called an “Eco day” from schools. This program is very unique in its process of collection. By using young students as the source, they reinforce the students by giving them corresponding rewards in exchange of their recyclables. Capt. Sarmiento explains that, Eco savers program was created by the realization of republic act 9003 or also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001. It mainly aims to divert a small portion of wastes through a useful way such as recycling. Situated a few blocks away from the barangay hall is Leodigario Victorino Elementary School. Being a student once in this school, I experienced the program and I am very familiar with the process of eco savers. The students were reminded to bring recyclable wastes the previous day. Early in the morning, upon entering the school, the students brought cartons, boxes, plastic bottles, used newspapers and other recyclable materials. Every section will fall in line and will turnover their recyclables to the present city hall officials. Then, students are provided with a passbook that will serve as their record book for points they will accumulate for each item. Twice a year, an “eco savers bus” will visit the school for the students to redeem their rewards through accumulated points. An eco savers bus is especially designed for shopping. It is like a “mobile store” which sells school supplies such as notebooks, dictionaries, pencils and other goods such as sugar, rice and etc. Although this program is not directly related to the barangay, Capt. Sarmiento claims that “we are assigned to contact a nearby junkshop and send them to the school to collect the recyclables. We also deploy our staffs to help and assist the students”
Moving planet: September 24, 2011
This worldwide event was originated from the international organizations such as the 350.org. Barangay Jesus de la Pena adapted this project which includes, fun run, bicycle race, poster making contest and photo shoot contest. Moving planet aims to reduce the pollution due to fossil fuel by doing a worldwide campaign. Specifically, according to Capt. Sarmiento, this is done to reduce current 390 parts per million carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to a safety level which is 350 parts per million.
As the hosts of the said event in Marikina City, early in the morning of September 24, 2011, barangay councils or kagawad, staffs and supporting agencies such as Honda cars Marikina, Red cross Philippines, Boy scouts of the Philippines, Lamco international, Mendez medical group, Pagcor and Eco art assembled with their respective booths, all of which supports the event. As a participant in the event, I estimated that there are at least 300 persons who participated in the fun run alone. Innovative electric cars are displayed to promote a “zero emission” vehicles. This event in general is free of charge, except for the optional t-shirt and food which costs 300 pesos.

Hakot Kuyagot
As captain Manuel Sarmiento proudly stated “Hakot Kuyagot proved its effectiveness and reflected our innovative skills”. I asked him about the main goals and aims of this project. He answered, “Hakot Kuyagot is a project that aims to help the community on disposing large sized wastes such as garden wastes, fire debris and other extra ordinarily generated wastes”. People in the community of local households will contact the barangay if they have the kinds and such amount of mentioned wastes. This requires a special trip of the daily collector truck to accommodate and dispose the wastes properly. Once the contact is clear, a schedule of at least 2 days reservation is followed. But if there is no scheduled”hakot” within the particular day, an immediate action is taken place. During the hakot day, all of the barangay staffs and volunteers are ready to pick up the wastes. If the reported waste was too large or too many to contain in one truck, the barangay will automatically turnover it to the CEMO or the city environmental management office to handle the pickup process. Hakot kuyagot is done in daily basis to accommodate the needs of the community for help.
Hakot kuyagot was also implemented and done by the CEMO or formerly known as WMO (waste management office) before, the only difference is that barangay Jesus de la Pena offers a free of charge service within in its vicinity.

September 28, 2011, as the typhoon Pedring struck the Luzon area yesterday, it left almost all cities in debris of trees and our barangay was one of the affected. As fallen trees lie down the streets, I saw the barangay staffs including Captain Manuel Tarangka picking up and collecting the debris. I volunteered myself to help them. We began to collect the fallen trunks, twigs and leaves inside the Leodigario Victorino elementary school. Those trees with severed branches are immediately cut off. We began loading it up to the truck and delivered them to the CEMO. I asked one of the volunteers about what will be done all of those debris. Mr. Randy Santiago answered,” all of these will be grinded since it was from trees to produce fertilizer”. After we delivered the wastes, I was not able to join them again in their next trip because they told me that they have numerous itineraries that day.

Waste Segregation
This project was not new in barangay Jesus de la Pena since it was implemented by the city office a long time ago. Captain Sarmiento said that “waste segregation is continuous in our barangay, Segregation of biodegradable and non biodegradable and residuals at given respective trash bins around the community. We also give leaflets and posters to promote the continuity of this campaign”
Free SipSip ng Pozo Negro
What about this project? I asked him. “Libre sipsip ng pozo negro is done whenever there are households within our barangay that needs desludging and if their septic tanks are full. We all know that these kinds of wastes can’t just be disposed away. Last July we conducted this project.” After collecting, we will turnover it to the CEMO for processing.



Tree Planting
Conducted once a month, it is where all barangay staffs and concerned citizens gather to plant trees to the Marikina river park area. This is funded by the Marikina city hall.



Understanding the Projects
Of all the aforementioned projects stated by Captain Manuel Sarmiento, there is only one similarity among each of the projects, they are all aiming to protect and conserve the environment. Every morning, I observed that streets in our barangay are indeed clean and this may be the apparent effect of these projects. Given all of these facts, effects and its impact on the community can be analyzed.
By implementing these projects, it seems that certain priorities and needs of both the community and the projects are emerging. These are some of my observed needs and priorities:

1. Budget
2. Greater information dissemination
3. Manpower
4. Community Cooperation.

Secretary Teresita David explained that “our barangay has the least budget compared to other barangays”. With the allocation of only 5 million pesos (which is called Supplemental Budget) for the whole year, it is certainly no t sufficient to support these projects. I asked why this amount can’t satisfy the needs. She replied “ 5 million pesos encompasses all of the projects we have, as you can see ,we don’t have the latest tools such as the new suction machine used for the free cleaning of the septic tanks and other needed cleaning materials”. Although almost all projects are initiated and funded by the city hall, some of these projects are compromised because of the limited budget which in turn leads to a slow and delayed implementation.

Greater Information dissemination among residents and households within the community is not well regulated. Projects and events are printed on flyers which are not very well given attention, posters are usually found on the public bulletins, the problem is, the posters are only found posted in the barangay hall area only. They also utilize the use of social networking sites to promote projects and present updates about the improvement of the community. With these methods, I observed that not all of the people within the community know the projects and programs done by the barangay. Take for example the hakot kuyagot project; the main problem here is that, people often can’t understand that there is a limitation of the amount of waste that can be picked up. Also, when people often make contact to the barangay for the pickup request, they demand for an immediate action without considering the agreed schedule.

Manpower is also a problem. Given limited human resources, operations of the projects are done with all of the barangay staffs. With around 8-10 persons, they execute these projects by the help of the volunteers, NGO’s, Religious groups and other concerned citizens. This illustrates the twice a month clean up drive.
Although I observed them to be successful in each clean up drives, I consider the need for a wide cooperation of the whole community to increase more awareness an increase the percentage of success of this project. Community cooperation might be the key to the advancement to the barangay’s desired goals. Awareness of the people about the environment influences them to join and cooperate for the welfare of the community. With the discussed needs and priorities, some of them implicitly and explicitly give the possible solutions to the problems.
What can be done?
The issue of budget only leads to a very complicated matter. I suggested coming up with solutions without thinking much of the budget. With the time and resources we have as of now, I recommend a Service-Learning program for students. Since the location of Leodigario Victorino Elementry School is almost at the heart of the community, it is a very good opportunity to let the grade 5-6 students to participate to minor environmental activities aside from the eco savers program such as waste segregation, tree planting and helping clean the community. This proposal have a mutual benefits to the school,students and the community.
Another is the involvement of business owners, residents and students on every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month on meeting sessions in the barangay hall on planning and implementation. These are some activities to boost the awareness of the people. The barangay can also create partnerships to organizations such as the Red Cross Philippines and boy scouts of the Philippines to support the manpower needed to these projects.
The proposed solutions, although simple, are just inniative steps and there are surely various better solutions.


Jesus dela Pena as a Community Service learning place
Helping the community by joining the Hakot Kuyagot project, fun run and other activities, I think I contributed in a little way to conserve our environment for the community. I learned that helping other people and the community comes with corresponding learning and new knowledge. I can say that it was worth the effort. There are sure a lot of young learners like me who would like to join and cooperate but doesn’t have enough encouragement from the family and community.
I suggest empowering the barangay’s campaign of environmental awareness by concentrating on the young students. They should instill values of the community service and its benefits to the welfare of the environment. Inviting them to participate at least once a month may be a good start. Eco savers program is a very excellent project because it teaches the students at a very young age about environmental awareness, cleanliness and the importance of community service. The school must be willing to cooperate as well as teachers and school staffs to make the service learning possible. Schools taught theoretical concepts about the environment, this is an opportunity to immerse and apply their learned concepts and put them into action.
My short participation in the community taught me things about the real situation of the community towards change and awareness.
I learned that the involvement of the community is very vital to further improve the success of the projects. The barangay is always open for volunteers for those who would like to join. If given the time, I would like to involve myself in community service to help the people and the environment as well. It would have been great if I knew a long time ago that there are opportunities like these that exist in a nearby place.
This experience may be a good example for the whole country in promoting the environmental awareness to all the Filipino people.