Garbage from Black Nazarene procession twice as many this year

Authorities on Tuesday said they have collected twice the amount of garbage from this year’s Traslacion of the Black Nazarene as compared to last year.

This, despite the consistent call for a “trash-less” Black Nazarene procession.

In a news release, Che Borromeo, head of Task Force Manila Cleanup which led the post-Traslacion cleanup, said they have collected a total of 69.43 tons of garbage from Monday morning to 9:30 a.m. of Tuesday.

“Piles of rubbish dotted our streets. We have so far collected 12 truckloads of garbage since yesterday morning until 9:30 am this morning,” Borromeo said.

During the same 24-hour period last year, they collected only a total of 34.86 tons of garbage, he added.

Meanwhile, from January 7 up to Tuesday morning, the Task Force has collected 65 truckloads or 341.29 tons of garbage, a little less than twice of last year’s 172.29 tons.

Borromeo said the waste they collected were mostly composed of plastic water bottles, styrofoam food containers and utensils, plastic cups, cigarette butts, wrappers, plastic bags, newspapers and carton boxes.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada ordered the deployment of street sweepers from the city’s Department of Public Services and Task Force Manila Cleanup which would follow the procession as it progressed towards Quiapo Church.

This was to make sure that the route would be immediately cleaned up after the procession had passed. 

“They followed the procession, from the start to finish, cleaning up and collecting garbage along the way,” Estrada said.

Borromeo said they used the city’s new street sweeper truck and four huge dump trucks placed in strategic locations to help sweepers collect garbage.

“Since our big trucks cannot penetrate narrow streets, we simply positioned them in several locations. Each can carry up to 20 tons of garbage. Dito muna iipunin ‘yung mga basurang nakolekta ng ating mga kariton bago itapon,” he said.

This year’s Traslacion, considered to be one of the longest in recent history, lasted for 22 hours and 19 minutes. — RSJ, GMA News