By Rushelle Intia and Maria Isabel Gallego
When COVID-19 emerged, the world seemed to have stopped, but along with medical frontliners, garbage collectors also continued doing their daily routine of collecting wastes.
Although considered as environmental frontliners, garbage collectors are often forgotten, even for benefits and protective equipment.
This is what Jomar Dalogtog, who has been working for 11 years as a garbage collector, believes. He is currently assigned to Barangay Longos, Malabon City.
"When we say frontliner, we only remember garbage collectors when said. Because when a frontliner is heard, the first thing that comes out are doctors, nurses, grad riders. But when you say garbage collectors, that's when they will only remember 'yes, they're also frontliners,'” Dalogtog said in an interview in Tagalog.
"It’s like we are being forgotten because it’s like we are not getting any from the government, such as the benefits for those they called frontliner, those they acknowledge as frontliners. It seems like we are neglected to their benefits,” he added.
Aside from being not included in the frontliner's benefits, garbage collectors also clamor for protective gear such as face masks and gloves to be provided.
Alvin Galang, a garbage collector for 15 years, said they buy their own face masks, gloves, and alcohol as their company stopped providing those.
"Not anymore. We buy on our own. [Although] there were issued to us such as masks and gloves, but the company stopped," Galang said.
"For us, in this pandemic, alcohol and face masks are what we need in this pandemic as it is one of the things we use every day," Dalogtog added.
With COVID-19 presence, personal protective equipment or PPE is also vital for them to ensure their safety.
However, despite being faced with garbage piled up and placing bodies vulnerable to the virus, they chose not to wear PPE due to the weather.
"We don't have PPE because it interferes with our work, especially when it's hot. Of course, my co-workers are exposed to the sun. Now, of course, we also avoid heatstroke because of the extreme heat but it would be ok if we wore gloves and pants, clothes, and a mask. We considered that as our PPE. It's up to us. [PPEs are] not required," Dalogtog said.
But having to wear only face masks, gloves, and such without PPE also anxious them.
"Being anxious has been there, but in our work, of course, we also take into consideration our work where we are comfortable," he added.
Meanwhile, for garbage collectors, discipline among the people is what they needed the most, especially this pandemic.
"Discipline among the people. We don't have much to collect, but the people here have no discipline. The garbage there, they just throw it there," Galang said.
"Garbages are really piled up. It's inevitable. There's no management guarding. The people are indecent," Nestor Broquel, a garbage collector for almost 30 years, added.
On the institution’s lense
With garbage collectors being at risk with Covid-19 due to the nature of their work, there were institutions that had been handling the protection of these environmental frontliners in order to help lessen the risk of COVID-19 contamination during their working schedule.
The Malabon City Environmental and Natural Resource Office (CENRO), in which a local government unit that garbage collectors Alvin Galang, Jomar Dalogtog, and Nestor Broquel are under, said that private companies manage those garbage collectors with a truck. Hence, protective gears such as face masks and face shields are the city's private holder's responsibility, the Leonel Waste Management Corporation.
Leonel is a private holding company of Malabon City garbage collectors and has been collecting, segregating, and transporting solid waste in several cities in Metro Manila.
“[W]e mandated Leonel, we talked to them and sent them letters, that their personnel should have PPE, and other safety protective gear. So we ensure that they should have PPE, wearing a face mask, gloves, and alcohol,” Mark Lloyd Mesina, the officer in chief of Malabon CENRO, said in an interview with Manila Standard.
Mesina also said that Leonel Corporation has its own way of checking their personnel’s health status such as conducting check ups, “In our holder (Leonel), just recently they have been conducting medical check-ups on their employees. Because it is the obligation of our holder, to ensure cleanliness all over the city, they must also ensure that their personnel are physically fit…”
According to him, the city has also provided protective gear for the garbage collectors, however, due to shortage of equipment they must prioritize the healthcare workers first since they are more prone to the virus infection.
“Here in Malabon, we really prioritized medical workers, so we were on the side of our holder, since it's a private company that contracted to collect garbage, they have their own, they manage independently. In our sweepers, we ensure that we can provide them with a supply of face shield, face mask, and alcohol,” he said.
Meanwhile, Josias Syquimsiam, Jr., the officer in chief of Solid Waste Management Office (SWMO) of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said that their office’s responsibility is where the garbage will be dumped and not on regulating garbage personnel.
Syquimsiam further said that garbage collector’s protection against COVID-19 was not part of their responsibility since there were private holders that were taking care of this necessity.
On June 16, the Environmental Management Bureau released an advisory encouraging Filipinos to observe proper waste segregation in their homes to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The advisory stated that households should disinfect wastes with chlorine-based solutions prior to the collection of garbage collectors.
Unfortunately, the Manila Standard tried to contact the Leonel Waste Management Corporation however there were no answers from any of their staff through telephone line or email.
