2019

This is an Entry to the Government Best Practice Recognition Awards

Title

ABANTE - Atong Basura Amomahon Nagkahiusa Tanang Esperanzahon. United Esperanzahanon on Proper Waste management

Organization

LGU of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur

Best practice Focus Area(s)

Leadership, Social and environmental responsibility

Year Implemented

2003

Summary

The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 known as RA 9003 mandated all Local Government Units to implement proper waste management and enforce the act within its jurisdiction. The act was the answer to the increasing problem of solid wastes brought by the increase in population due to urbanization, improper waste disposal, and other environment-related issues.

So in 2003, the Local Government Unit crafted a Local Ordinance on proper waste management known as the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Ordinance (Mun. Ordinance Number 049-2003) and the ABANTE Program under the Former Mayor Deo P. Manpatilan Sr. was launched. ABANTE Program is an acronym of the local dialect Atong Basura Amomahon Nagkahiusa Tanang Esperanzahon (United Esperanzahanon on Proper Waste Management)— the program that runs for almost 16 years with constant innovations for sustainable implementation. The LGU is constantly learning from other municipalities for the betterment of program implementation such as the Municipality of Linamon, Lanao del Norte for the operation of a controlled dumpsite in 2003; the Municipality of Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte for the operation of Eco Park and Residual Containment Area in 2008; and the City of San Carlos Negros Oriental for the design of the Materials Recovery Facility.

As the LGU keeps on benchmarking on the best practices of the other LGUs, Esperanza has innovated its own best practice in implementing the Proper Solid Waste Management Program –that is the POLITICAL WILL of our Leaders to strict enforcement of the provisions of the Municipal Comprehensive Solid Waste Management (SWM) Ordinance which includes filing of sixteen (16) cases of SWM violations in the proper courts for violating the aforecited ordinance, two (2) of which was issued with a warrant of arrest and one (1) filed with resistance and disobedience in the person of authority (clean and green taskforce issuing citation ticket) and the other one was the SWM violator not attending a court hearing for the SWM filed the case. This is to put emphasis that Esperanza is serious in implementing the program and that the community should not take it for granted as Mayor Leonida Manpatilan says “discipline on proper waste management should be inculcated in the way of life of all Esperanzahanon.”

Background and Problem

The Municipality of Esperanza was once tagged as the third (3rd) dirtiest municipality in the Province of Agusan del Sur. Being a river town, flooding occasionally occurs in the 47 barangays of the municipality and since the usual practice of the community is to burn or dump the wastes to the nearby water bodies once flooding occurs, garbage is everywhere exposing the vulnerable sector of the community to illnesses.

The municipality is populated with diverse cultures and traditions mostly by Lumads (Higaonon, Manobo and Banwaon), Bisaya (Cebu), Bol-anon (Bohol), Surigaonon (Surigao) and Waray (Leyte)—language, culture, education, and road accessibility has been a barrier in implementing the program. However, our Local executive took it as a challenge. The solid waste management program was intensified to address the problem in indiscriminate dumping and burning of waste. It becomes part of the Vision and Mission of the Municipality—to have an ecologically-balanced environment with the following objectives:

  • To be able to establish and enable a sustainable a solid waste management program with multi-stakeholdership support and participation
  • To establish and develop an efficient system of waste reduction at source, storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing and disposal
  • To increase the level of awareness, support, and participation of the constituents in the sustaining implementation and development of the ESWM Program
  • To ensure sustained implementation through strict enforcement of ESWM ordinance backed up with enhancing policy support

Solution and Impact

“To Inculcate discipline and make proper waste management a way of life of all Esperanzahanon” is the advocacy of the Mayor Leonida Manpatilan. In relation to this, the LGU has taken the initiative to constantly educate and guide the community on proper waste management since it has been an old practice to discriminately dumped waste everywhere and it’s hard to shift an old practice in a snap of a finger.

The LGU intensified Information and Education Campaign; constructs and provide Solid Waste Management Facilities like Eco Park, MRF, Dumptrucks alternative technologies, etc.; Empowered the Barangay Government Units as well as the community through assembly meetings, purok meetings, and action plans; enforce the ordinance by creating the clean and green taskforce—a deputized agents who will apprehend violators of the ordinance; and provide financial support for the operations of the program such as garbage collection, Eco Park maintenance, Madagway daw Malandang ha Pagbanua Evaluation (Clean and Green Evaluation), Prizes for barangays with excellent SWM Program implementation (School and Barangay) and surprise household inspections for SWM compliance.

To implement the sustainably implement the program the Municipality

  • Regularly conducts a benchmarking of best practices of different LGUs or private entities to replicate with our municipality.
  • The clean and green task force was oriented on how to enforce the ordinance.
  • Regular SWM Household inspection and enforcement of penalty of the Clean and Green Task Force one household failed to comply with the SWM ordinance and a citation ticket was issued.
  • Empower the barangay to implement and enforce penalties within their respective areas through an MOA and crafting of Barangay SWM Ordinance.
  • Conducts annual search for Madagway daw Malandang ha Pagbanua (Clean and Green Community) School and Barangay Category
  • Enforce penalties to individuals issued with a citation ticket (SWM violator) when failed to settle the penalties, the LGU through Office of the Municipal Environment & Natural Resources shall file a case against the SWM violator to proper courts.

Due to the strict implementation of the program, the LGU has an 85% compliance on proper segregation, attained the 20% waste diversion as mandated by the law (RA 9003), closed the controlled dumpsite and operates an ecological park with alternative technologies to minimize the disposed waste to the Residual Containment Area (RCA), minimize the littering and dumping of waste as per records on the citation tickets issued on littering, dumping and open burning violations-thus making Esperanza a garbage-free and healthy municipality.

Milestones

The program creates an eco-friendly environment for the community of Esperanza. Nearby municipalities have visited for replication of the program implementation. Recognized as SWM Best implementer, the LGU earned access to various funding agencies like AECID, DA, DOST, and EMB. Also, the program implementation brings various awards from national agencies giving honor to the the community of Esperanza;

  • 1ST Prize Winner –Search for Most Orderly Municipality (2003- 2004) Provincial Level
  • Brgy. Poblacion – Qualifier for National Level Search for Model Barangay on Ecowaste Management
  • 2006 Provincial Winner – Search for the Cleanest and Greenest Municipality in Agusan del Sur
  • 2007 Provincial Winner – Search for the Cleanest and Greenest Municipality (Category B Rural Municipality) in Agusan del Sur
  • 2007 Provincial Winner – Best Solid Waste Management Program implementer in Agusan del Sur
  • 2007 and 2008 provincial winner (Barangay Duangan) search for the Cleanest and greenest barangay in Agusan del Sur
  • 2008 provincial Winner – Best Solid Waste Management Program implementer in Agusan del Sur (category A)
  • 2009-Provincial Winner of the Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran
  • 2009-Regional Platinum Awardee for Zero Basura Olympics(Garbology Marathon 2008)
  • 2010-National Finalist of Zero Basura Olympics (Garbology Marathon)
  • 2010-Plaque of Recognition for Ecological sustainability of the SWM Program implementation (Regional Ecology Center-EMB-DENR)
  • 2011- Provincial Winner – Search for the Cleanest and Greenest Municipality (Category B Rural Municipality) in Agusan del Sur
  • 2011-Regional Winner Search for Sustainable & Eco-friendly Sch. (Duangan Elem. Sch.)
  • 2012 – Provincial Winner –Search for the cleanest & Greenest Municipality in Agusan del Sur
  • 2013-2016– GPK Hall Famer Awardee in the Province of Agusan del Sur
  • 2017 – Regional Awardee for SWM Best Implementer
  • 2018- National Awardee for Sustainably Implementing the SWM Program
  • 2019- Provincial Winner Gawad Gobernador sa Kapaligiran from Provincial Government
  • 2019- Environment Partners Award from DENR-Region XIII