Parañaque City Mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. ordered the City Planning Office to conduct inspections on factories, commercial establishments as well as private homes whose lots are lying near the banks of the Parañaque River and tributary creeks.

Bernabe issued the instructions following a Supreme Court (SC) ruling and upon the directives of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to the cities and municipalities in Metro Manila, Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan for the restoration of cleanliness on riverbanks and creeks in their respective areas.

City Planning Officer Engr. Benigno Rivera immediately acted on Bernabe’s directives and requested the support of barangay government units (BGUs) in making ocular checks to determine if subject firms and houses have wastewater treatment facilities or hygienic septic tanks as prescribed by existing laws, ordinances, rules and regulations.

Rivera said that if the factories or commercial establishments will lack waste water facilities, sanctions will be implemented against them. They will face closure depending on the gravity of the offense while house owners will be dealt with imposition of fines and other sanctions.

The city government will exact compliance to prevent industrial wastes, sewage water and human waste from flowing into the river, connecting creeks and the Manila Bay.

In addition, the city government had kept up its creek clearing operations, coastal cleanup and river rehabilitation project jointly with the Save the Parañaque River Foundation, MMDA, BGUs and the Rotary Club International District 3830.

The City Agriculture Division and City Health Office has strictly enforced the regulations prohibiting large-scale hog-raising and dumping of animal waste on creeks in the city.

Parañaque Rotary Clubs and the Solid Waste and Environmental Sanitation Office (SWAESO) also conduct lectures to dissuade informal settlers living along riverbanks and creeks from dumping garbage, waste water and human waste into these waterways. (James Catapusan)