About a thousand students from different schools in Dumaguete City joined the parade initiated by the Silliman University Student Government last Jan. 14 to show support to the City Ordinance 231 which aims to regulate the use of plastic bags and ban the use of styrofoam as packaging materials.
The said ordinance was passed August 2011 and is scheduled to be implemented during the first quarter of this year.
Together with Silliman University, students from Foundation University, Saint Paul University and Colegio de Santa Catalina de Alejandria filled the stretch of Rizal Boulevard carrying placards with environmental slogans.
Also in attendance were members of RockEd Dumaguete, Friends of the Environment in Negros Oriental and other environmental groups. United with one cause, they distributed flyers which contained information about the Ordinance 231 and the harmful effects of plastics to the environment.
Mahogany Rae Bacon, SUSG president and senior mass communication student said that the parade was to remind the people of Dumaguete that there is such an ordinance and that it is the role of the local officials to implement it and of the people to observe it.
“It was a collective show of support by a united youth sector to an ordinance which they deem to be beneficial to their community. It shows that the students in this town care and are willing to be involved in the affairs of the government. After all, we are a university town and the young people should have a big voice in the city,” Bacon said.
The parade culminated with a short program and a concert by the national band, Imago.
Future plans to push for the implementation of the said ordinance include a signature campaign by the League of Students Government in Negros Oriental, an umbrella organization of all the student governments and councils in the province.
LSG President Angelo Nabalse of NORSU said that they are targeting to gather at least 10,000 signatures.