In a bid to address the long-standing issue on the sale of chicken dung in La Trinidad, Benguet, the municipality is exploring means for its regulation.
Mayor Romeo Salda said he has received a recommendation from the Municipal Legal Office for the crafting of an ordinance to regulate the sale of chicken dung within the municipality.
“We will be supporting the recommendation since it has been an existing problem of the municipality, and this is what we see as the solution for this issue,” Salda said.
The municipality through a task force has been dealing with the closure of chicken dung stalls along the stretch of the Halsema Highway in Shilan, by virtue of Administrative Order 008-2010 which prohibits the sale, disposal, and storage of chicken dung.
But Legal Officer Victor Singa, Jr. said the AO, which was issued during the time of former Mayor Gregorio Abalos, is not enough basis for the stoppage of selling of chicken dung in Shilan. He said the AO can be implemented but there would be no penalties for those who violated.
He said the two earlier cases filed by the municipality against the operators, which were the operation without a business permit and the chicken dung operation as a nuisance, were dismissed by the courts.
In operating without permit, Singa said the court ruled in favor of the operators since the municipality did not give permits to the business operators in the first place.
For the second case, the court stated the nuisance, which is the smell of the chicken dung, can only be abated through the enactment of an ordinance since chicken dung is not a contraband.
Singa said the recommendation of the legal office also came about from their meeting with various department heads to resolve the long-standing issue on the selling of chicken dung within the town.
Committee on Health and Sanitation Chair Councilor Guiller Galwan said they will refile the proposed ordinance on the regulation of the sale of chicken dung within the municipality.
The committee’s earlier proposed ordinance at the municipal council on the regulation of the sale of chicken dung did not hurdle the first reading.
Singa said once the proposed ordinance is in motion, the public hearings to be conducted should include the farmers and stakeholders from the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health, among other agencies to be consulted for the crafting of the measure. – Ofelia C. Empian
