Benchmark in Barangay Upper Inuman

The ordinance on solid waste management (SWM) in barangay Siari is not strictly implemented. The barangay only adapted the existing municipal ordinance No. 2011-074 on SWM entitled “Basura Mo Hipuson Mo, Tungod Mo Limpyo Mo Policy and No Segregation No Collection Policy”. To date, there are no existing barangay ordinances to monitor SWM on a barangay level. Offenders are not given the penalties that they deserve. And according to the barangay captain of Siari, the penalties are additional workload for them than they are solution. As mentioned earlier, there are no SWM ordinances in Siari on a barangay level, so a benchmarking was done with the barangay top awardee on SWM – barangay Upper Inuman. Together with representatives of barangay Siari are other representatives of the other five (5) barangays: Bago, Motibot, Doña Josefa, Maras, and La Concepcion. The medical students were received by the barangay secretary Ms. Anselita Rabanes, as the barangay captain was not available at that time. One of the noted ways on how the Upper Inuman manages their SWM is they track households compliant to the monthly collection of solid waste. Every collection, a point person holding the attendance mans the MRFs for the monitoring of compliant households. The attendance contains name of the head of household and checklist of solid waste they brought to the MRF. Penalties from failure of submitting their solid waste include penalty fee (ranging 20php to 50php per purok depending on the agreement among barangay counselors) and no purok clearance (prerequisite for barangay clearance). Another thing is that each purok sells their recyclable waste and the earnings are added to their purok funds and barangay revenue. At least once a month, each purok takes turns to host a night of gathering and salo-salo. Expenses of the said activities are charged from the purok funds. The Women’s Organization of the barangay also contributes by turning recyclable and residual wastes into souvenir items. They were also able to make dresses. Products from their hard work are also sold, adding more to their fund. One highlight of the benchmark knows that the system of SWM is stemmed down to the creative initiative of the barangay captain and the sense of community and responsibility among the residents of barangay Upper Inuman. The members of the barangay Upper Inuman work hand-in-hand to achieve and maintain the cleanliness. With these inspiration from the success of the barangay Upper Inuman in their SWM, the medical students aim to adapt this and apply to their own barangays. As barangays are different from each other, some modifications will be made. With collaborative efforts to solve the problem on SWM, we are a foot closer to a cleaner and healthier community.