TABUK CITY, Kalinga (PIA) — With the 2025 midterm elections concluded and winners proclaimed, what remains in many areas are the remnants of the campaign – posters, streamers, and tarpaulins clinging to streets, stores, poles, and houses.
Despite the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) call for all candidates to remove their campaign materials by the end of the campaign period on May 10, many have not complied, leaving the task to environmental advocates like Florence Aowat.
Aowat, an environmental advocate and entrepreneur who owns Kinwa Etnika, a local crafts business in Kalinga, has taken the initiative to collect these campaign materials and upcycle them into eco-bags, preventing them from becoming scattered waste.
As a member of the Kalinga Basura Express, a community-based organization dedicated to environmental protection and charitable initiatives, Aowat saw an opportunity to repurpose the discarded materials.
“Dakami gamin, member nak ti Basura Express, inkami met al-alaen dagiti basura. Ket nakitak dagitoy, kesa naman maiyapan idyay dumping site nga mapuuran lang, aramiden tayo ladtan nga ecobag,” she said, explaining her motivation in the local dialect. (I am a member of the Basura Express and we gather garbage. I saw these materials and rather than these be brought to the dumping site to be burned, let us turn them into ecobags.)
She has appealed to those taking down their campaign materials to donate them for repurposing.
Aowat emphasized that upcycling these materials not only helps reduce pollution but also provides a source of livelihood for locals involved in the crafting process.
“Kunkunak nga kadagiti agik-ikkat iti tarpaulin, iyeg yu ditoyen ta aramiden tayo iti eco-bag. Ti impact na met iti environment ket awan ti pollution tayo ken agbalin nga livelihood mi nga agar-aramid. Napintas nga aramiden nga ecobag daytoy ta nabaked,” she said. (I am asking those who are taking down the tarpaulins to bring them to us and convert them into eco-bags. Its impact on the environment includes preventing pollution, as well as it becoming a livelihood for us. The tarpaulins are good to be made into eco-bags because these are sturdy.)
Aowat plans to either sell the eco-bags she creates in the market or distribute them to people in need.
“Daytoy aramidek ket pang-usar mi met lang ta sayang nu gumatang pay. Ken ma-ilako mi met ken ited kadagiti agkasapulan,” she said. (I am making these for our own use because it would be a waste to buy. And we can also sell them and give them to those in need.)
Meanwhile, the Comelec has granted candidates a five-day grace period from election day, or until May 17, to remove all their campaign posters and materials. The agency had previously announced that all campaign materials should have been taken down by midnight on May 11, following the official end of the campaign period on May 10. (RGA-PIA CAR, Kalinga)
