MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday vowed to sustain the momentum of the government’s “Kalinisan sa Bagong Pilipinas” cleanup program.
Marcos said in a video message on Tuesday that he would personally monitor the progress of the program, noting that villages will be assessed for their implementation of the nationwide cleanup drive every month.
“We will continue the cleanliness and orderliness of our villages. We will gauge the performance of barangay councils every month, and those with outstanding performance will be rewarded,” he said.
The President underscored the need to clean roads, canals, markets and schools for healthier and safer communities.
The nationwide cleanup effort, which started during the National Community Development Day on January 6, is the new convergence initiative of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said that thousands of barangay and youth councils took to social media to show how they implemented the President’s cleanup program in their communities.
“From January 6 to 7, about 90,000 Facebook posts carried the hashtag #KALINISANsaBagongPilipinas, about 43,000 posts used the #BuildBetterMore hashtag, while about 40,000 posts included the #CleanCommunities hashtag to support the program,” the PCO said.
Interior Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. on Tuesday said that more than 5.1 million kilograms of trash have been collected by about 1,234,844 participating individuals and 245,393 local officials since the cleanup program began.
According to Abalos, they will conduct quarterly recognition of local government units that will efficiently implement the program.
Marcos ordered village officials and the citizenry on January 5 to work together to achieve a clean Philippines.
“Let our barangays be the laboratory of workable ideas, a showcase of what we can achieve together, and proof that the basic government unit, the barangay, teems with best practices,” he said.
“Filipinos do not deserve dirty, dingy or dark communities. So let’s act to make our environment comfortable and clean. There should be no place, no space, for dirt, dust and darkness in our community,” he added.
