Romero leads rally for environment protection

The soft-spoken Mangaldan Mayor Hermie Romero (extreme left) leads municipal officials and employees in an environmental protection parade

Members and employees of the Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council) led by Vice Mayor Berrex Abalos (4th from left) joined the parade around the town center

Mayor Romero (extreme right) and Vice Mayor Abalos (extreme left) ate heartily with their bare hands on a long tabled Boddle Fight. The festivity was joined by municipal employees and trike drivers.

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN- The mayor of this burgeoning town led the municipal employees recently by marching around the town- center in a rally for the protection of the environment.

Mayor Herminio Romero said the rally signified this town’s determination to educate his constituents on the importance of waste segregation.

The rally, held  in tandem with the 111th anniversary of the Civil Service Commission, was participated in by all the departments  of the municipality and the police here who proudly donned their different colored shirts while some of them carried makeshift  garbage bins marked with “Hazardous Waste, and Recyclable and Non-Recyclable”.

Participants wield placards that screamed with slogans like “Clean and sustainable environment protection the best legacy of the future generation”, “Masdan mo ang iyong kapaligiran. Di Kaya’t isa ka sa dahilan sa pagkasira ng kalikasan. Sagabal sa pag-unlad ng iyong bayan!”

Romero said that just like neighboring Dagupan City this town faces garbage congestion on this town’s limited dumpsite areas unless residents here cooperate by segregating their waste before they dispose it.

He declared that his administration resorted to a control dumpsite in barangay  Banaoang that he wants to convert into an ecological park.

He said that this town would not dump its garbage in Urdaneta City because that city’s P220 million Sanitary Landfill could just accommodate the city’s heaps in 20 years only.

Meanwhile, the rally was capped by a boodle fight participated in by hundreds of municipal officials, employees, and even trike drivers who all relished the first time experience of eating with their bare hands on foods like fried fish, chopped roasted hog, cooked rice, beans, chicken adobo, all spread above banana leaves on long tables that were prepared at the back of the municipal hall.

“The boodle fight was a first among the employees and trike drivers here,” Romero proudly said.

He said the event fostered camaraderie among the participants.