Environmental groups Ecowaste Coalition, Greenpeace Philippines, Mother Earth Foundation and Zero Waste Philippines have urged the Commission on Elections to pass a resolution that would ensure the conduct of clean and green elections in 2022, citing that previous polls generated huge amounts of garbage during the campaign period and on election day itself.
In a letter to Comelec Chair Sheriff Abas, the groups appealed to the poll body to “proactively integrate waste and toxic prevention” in the elections next year.
“We urge the Comelec to champion much-needed policies and practices that will protect our fragile environment from being further degraded by the avalanche of partisan political activities leading to the 2022 elections,” said Eileen Sison, president of Ecowaste Coalition.
The groups cited the widespread disregard of environmental rules and regulations in the past polls, such as the unrestrained plastering of campaign materials outside Comelec-designated areas, such as on trees and walls. They also scored the candidates’ failure to avoid the use of single-use plastics in their campaigns, such as tarpaulins and confetti, the unchecked distribution and littering of sample ballots on Election Day, and the open burning of campaign waste which is in violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act and the Clean Air Act.
Even the use of disposable food and beverage containers by members of the Board of Election Inspectors, as well as the lack of a system for managing waste adds to the massive volume of garbage produced during the election season.
The groups suggested the creation of a special committee that will lead the “greening” of the polls and strictly enforce environmental rules.
Additionally, candidates and political parties should be mandated to use recyclable and reusable materials for their campaigns and conduct a compulsory post-election cleanup.
The figurative and literal garbage produced by the election season is truly overwhelming. The Comelec may not be able to do anything about the former, but it still has time to lay down the rules that can prevent the latter. Hopefully our commissioners are willing to come up with solutions that can minimize the perennial problem of election season garbage.*
