MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government is studying the possibility of institutionalizing the conduct of a monthly municipal-wide cleanup drive to empower residents to put value in maintaining cleanliness in the municipality to prevent the proliferation of illnesses that compromise the health of the people and the state of the town’s environment.
Mayor Frenzel Ayong said the local government will initiate the massive cleanup drive within the town proper in close coordination with the business sector to set the tone in the regular conduct of the cleanup drive before expanding the same to the different barangays.
The local chief executive added that while consultations with the different sectors are being done, the municipal council will eventually enact the appropriate ordinance to institutionalize the monthly conduct of cleanup drive in the municipality to inculcate into the minds of the people that cleanliness is not only the obligation of the local government but also the whole community as residents deserve to live in a healthy and clean environment.
“We will closely work with the different sectors of the municipality to empower our constituents to be actively involved in the cleanup drive because we want to live in a healthy environment for the benefit of the present and future generations,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
He claimed it is important for the municipal government to set the right direction in the conduct of the cleanup drive, especially in the town proper, so that the other sectors of the community and even the barangays will be convinced to support the proposed institutionalization of the activity which will be passed onto the present and future generations.
According to him, the proposed cleanup drive must have a significant impact in improving the overall cleanliness of the barangays and the municipality, an important aspects in ensuring a good state of the environment and the health of the people.
Ayong underscored that with a clean community, the proliferation of illnesses that pose a serious threat to health can be prevented as the health of the people is important in helping improve the development of the municipality.
He urged the utmost cooperation of the concerned sectors in the sustained implementation of the proposed monthly clean-up drive to achieve a good state of the environment that will translate to healthy people living in the said locality.
Mankayan is one of the five first-class municipalities in Benguet which primarily draws its income from its share of the operation of large-scale mining companies that currently operate within the jurisdiction of the municipality over the past several decades.
Ayong is on his first term of office as the town’s local chief executive after having been proclaimed as the winning mayoralty candidate in the May 13, 2019 mid-term elections.
By HENT
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis