Villar gifts lady senators with her tarpaulin bag

Senator Cynthia Villar has found a way to dispose off the tarpaulins used during her 90-day campaign for the recent May midterm polls—make a bag out of it.

During the last day of session last week, Villar, who topped the May polls, gifted her lady colleagues with the recycled bag.

While the outgoing senators were delivering their valedictory speeches, Villar was seen giving Senators Risa Hontiveros, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, and Loren Legarda the white tarpaulin bags.

Photo courtesy of Office of Senator Villar

Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, has tapped the help of a group of women in Dasmariñas, Cavite to make the bags.

She said this recycling project benefits a small tailoring business, which employs mothers as sewers.

“We are very glad that we have now a way for the proper disposal of these used tarpaulins. Through this initiative, we were not only able to recycle used tarpaulins into something useful, we were also able to help women earn additional income for their families,” she said in a press statement.

The 2 x 3 feet tarpaulins collected by the staff of Villar were delivered to MXD Tailoring Shop owned by 27-year-old Christine Joy Ferrer.

The tarpaulins  were made into bags for P16 a piece.

“Tuwang tuwa po ako kasi nagsisimula pa lang ako tapos nagtiwala na po sa akin si Senator Villar na gumawa ng bags niya. Malaking tulong po ito sa akin at sa mga sewers ko,“ Ferrer said.

On the first week,  the shop was able to finish 550 bags.

Ferrer said they will be making more as tarpaulins collected from the provinces start to arrive.

She said her four sewers are mothers who live nearby. One of her sewers has to look after a baby. Ferrer loaned one of her machines so she could work from home.

Ferrer herself was able to look after her kids aged 10 and 7, while operating her small business.

The finished product has a dimension of 12 x 18 x 4 inches, it is white with the printed side of the tarpaulin made as the inside of the bag. Tarpaulin bags are the more durable and environment-friendly substitute for plastic bags.

Villar said she will distribute the bags for free to further promote her advocacy for plastic recycling.

She earlier initiated a plastic recycling project which turns plastic wastes into school chairs. Through a plastic factory she built in Las Piñas, 20 kilos of soft plastics such as food wrappers were recycled into a plastic chair with changeable parts and has a life span of 20 years.

The chairs were donated to different public schools all over the country. — RSJ, GMA News