Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has ordered a major cleanup of Manila’s streets and public parks that had been littered with campaign posters, streamers and other election materials.
Estrada issued the directive on May 10, a day after the elections, to the Department of Public Services (DPS) and Manila Parks Development Office (MPDO)
. “The election is over. Our next task is to clean up the entire city,” he said.
Arsenic Lacson, head of MPDO, said they had started their operations on Tuesday at Plaza Hugo in Sta. Ana where they collected two truckloads of campaign trash.
MPDO is in charge of cleaning up the city’s public parks and monuments while DPS is assigned to the barangays in coordination with barangay officials, Lacson said.
“We have deployed teams numbering around 60 personnel to collect all campaign materials, even those belonging to other parties, as ordered by Mayor Estrada. We were directed not to leave even a single piece of trash,” the MPDO chief said.
Lacson also urged other candidates to help the city government clean up the mess left by three months of election campaign.
“Win or lose, candidates should be responsible in cleaning up their election mess,” he said.
The cleanup operations will take at least a week, Lacson said. Yesterday, May 12, MPDO personnel cleaned up Plaza Lacson in Sta. Cruz, Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz in Binondo and Plaza Moriones and Plaza Morga in Tondo where three more truckloads of campaign wastes were collected.
“Binalikan namin ngayon (Thursday) ang Plaza Moriones, madami kasi nakadikit sa wall at poste. Ang hirap bakbakin pati pintura, nasisira,” Lacson said.
Estrada gives special care to the 48 parks, plazas and monuments, all that remained of the old Manila’s pre-war and colonial architecture. Many had been converted into children’s playgrounds during the previous administrations.
These historic landmarks were recently renovated under Estrada’s P100-million restoration program.