Mayor Enrolls in Waste Management Course at the UP

WASTE MANAGEMENT COURSE AT UP FOR ACHARON. GenSan City Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr. (extreme left) during a break at his class on "Toxic & Hazardous Waste Management" at the University of the Philippines Diliman from November 9-12, 2007. This is the first of the four-module training course which the mayor, a licensed civil engineer, enrolled in under the Certificate Program on Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management of the UP's National Engineering Center to strenghten his administration's implemention of the city's Integrated Solid Waste and Waste Water Management Plan. With him in the photo are (L-R) Phil. Batteries, Inc.'s Jayme Gonzales, Course Director Dr. Gene Peralta of NEC, Globe Telecom's Beth Tamayo, Team Enery Sual Corp.'s Eric Legarda, Phil. Abatement Systems Specialist Inc.'s Lito Pogon and Carlito Cabanela, also of Team Energy.

For a period of five days early this November, Gen. Santos City Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr. undertook a training course in the first of a series of modules on Waste Management at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

This is the Certicate Program on Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management which is a four-module training course conducted by the university through the National Engineering Center (NEC) in coordination with its Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering Graduate Program.

Its objective is to build the technical capacity of leaders from the government and private sectors on the key elements of toxic and hazardous waste management for the implementation of RA 6969 or the "Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act".

Mayor Acharon, who is a licensed civil engineer has focused on environment protection as one of his adminstration's flagship missions through his Environmental Governance Project or Eco-Gov2.

This includes his designs on the city's Integrated Solid Waste and Waste Water Management Plan and the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape Plan which is in partnership with Sarangani Province. An offshoot of these plans is the Sanitary Landfill project in Barangay Sinawal which is in its bidding stage at this point and will be completed in 2009 at the earliest.

The course in UP, according to the mayor, therefore, "will not only equip us with more technical knowledge on how the city should conduct its handling of its waste material but they will also strengthen our networking with capable institutions and agencies which may assist us on matters pertaining to environmental protection and regeneration."

For this first set of module from November 5 to 9, entitled "Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management", Mayor Acharon teamed up with Engr. Nael Cruspero, who heads the City Planning Development Office. Subsequent modules scheduled for next year are: "Chemical Emergency Response and Preparedness"; "Inspection, Compliance and Enforcement"; and "Pollution Prevention".

All of these are under Course Director Dr. Gene Peralta of the National Engineering Center.