Villar invites big consumer product companies to join clean up of Manila Bay

Sen. Cynthia Villar said the country's most profitable consumer product companies should join the effort mounted by government agencies and private organizations to clean up Manila Bay.

Villar gave this statement during a clean up in Baseco, Manila, which yielded truckloads of non-biodegradable wastes, majority of which bear the logo of Unilever and Procter and Gamble, among others.

"I invite them to join our monthly coastal clean up activities so that they can see for themselves that their products compose the majority of solid wastes collected by our volunteers, and how trash ruin the mangrove trees and affect marine life," Villar said.

Villar said cleanups she regularly holds at the Ramsar site Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) and Baseco mostly yield containers of shampoo, soap, cleaning products, personal care products, food, etc.

She also suggested to make cleanup activities in Manila Bay a part of big companies' Corporate Social Responsibility program.

"It will also help if the companies could put in their product labels a reminder how to properly dispose the containers or wrappings after use," Villar said.

"Just like cigarettes and alcohol which are hazardous to health, they should also indicate that wrappings are non-biodegradable and hazardous to the environment," she added.

Villar was at Gasangan, Bgy. 649, Baseco, Manila last Monday (May 2) for the monthly clean up in the area. She was joined by over 300 participants from Villar SIPAG (Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-National Capital Region, Metro Manila Development Authority, and Baseco residents.

The cleanup yielded truckloads of garbage, which was mostly plastic. They also collected glass, food wrappers, cigarette butts, soda cans and eating utensils, grocery bags, straws and stirrers, take out containers, and beverage bottles.

Villar was also dismayed to find that the mangrove trees she planted during her last clean up activity in the area were ruined and covered with trash.