THIS is in reference to Mr. Bobby Nalzaro’s column on Wednesday, the 23rd of this month, entitled “Sabotage in hospital waste dumping?”
Thank you for taking the time to discuss the issue of hospital waste and the relatively little-known industry that is the Transport, Storage, and Disposal of Hospital Waste.
Thank you also for referencing my little known company, the Pollution Abatement Specialists Inc., or PASSI.
Out of a sense of delicadeza and business ethics, I won’t comment on the controversy being faced by a fellow entity in the TSD community of Cebu. They are currently being investigated by authorities and, as such, will have the opportunity to present their story.
I hope, however, that you won’t mind if I try to clarify a point that directly involves us.
PASSI has been operating as a TSD company for the past 15 years, but we have never serviced Chong Hua Hospital Mandaue. While they signed a non-exclusive contract with us on the third quarter of 2018, PASSI hasn’t been serving clients since June 2018 upon orders of then Environmental Management Bureau 7 due to what they termed “technical differences” in our application for TSD facility expansion.
The expansion is part of our medium- to long-term business continuity planning. Though we were surprised that they would prevent us from operating because of something we have yet to do, i.e. the expansion, the EMB’s power over TSD companies is absolute.
We complied and duly informed our clients. We do not know what happened next as our focus went to resolving the “technical differences” that the EMB alleged.
On top of addressing the costly disruption of our regular operations, we wanted to prevent a repeat of the events of April 2015—hazardous and infectious medical waste piling up in the many hospitals, medical centers, health centers, birthing centers, clinics, and laboratories in our service areas. To be completely honest, other than what we read in social media and the news, we have no first-hand knowledge of the incidents involving the hazardous and infectious medical waste found in the Mactan Channel nor of the Jan. 20 incident referenced in your column.--Engr. Julito T. Pogoy, PASSI president