The city-wide clean-up drive here has collected around 2,000 tons of debris and garbage left by Typhoon Odette, Mayor Michael Rama said on Monday.

Rama cited the Cebu City Hall employees who spent their holiday on December 30 (Dr. Jose Rizal Day) and on January 2 which was a Sunday, in cleaning up the rubbish piled up along the roads.

From 880 tons collected on December 30, the garbage collected increased to 1,900 tons on Sunday.

The cleaning activities were in compliance with the directives of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) to speed up the disposal of debris left the typhoon to pave the way for faster reconnection of power in the city.

“Each of you should ask what have you done to help the reconstruction efforts after ‘Odette’,” Rama told the workers who attended the flag-raising ceremony.

The city administrator, Engineer Susan Ardoza, said the city government personnel were divided into five teams deployed to different barangays, starting in Bulacao in the south and Talamban in the north.

Ardoza commended the team of Raquel Arce, head of the Cebu City Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification, and Enhancement (PROBE) for cleaning up the trashes piled up along the stretch of Sabellano Street expanding from the village of Quiot to Kinasang-an even beyond 6 p.m. on Sunday just to finish their clearing works.

She said the teams from the Department of Public Services deployed 60 dump trucks to collect the garbage.

Personnel from the Philippine Army, Cebu City Traffic Office, the quick response crew from the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, and officials and volunteers from the 80 barangays here also helped in the clean-up drive.

Rama issued Executive Order 52 following a request from the Visayan Electric Co. to local government units in Metro Cebu for speedy clearing operations to give linemen access to poles, lines and transformers damaged by the typhoon. (PNA)