THE SITUATION: [1] The Cebu City Council last March 9 passed the ordinance approving the joint venture agreement (JVA) between New Sky Energy Philippines Inc. and the City Government to build and operate a waste-to-energy facility on a six-hectare lot in the city.
The move has been opposed by environmental groups and "concerned citizens" since two years ago when the plan was first publicized. A picket in front of the legislative building on December 9, 2020 protested against the JVA which was then being negotiated. A review that then city administrator Floro Casas Jr. promised the public ended with the Sanggunian approval the other week, reviving opposers' demand for the City to scrap the plan.
[2] An Explainer inquiry with Congress Tuesday, March 15, on the status of Senate Bill #1789 showed that the proposal to allow WTE is still "pending second reading." Progress has been clearly slow since legislative action paused last September 21, 2020 and hasn't moved since then despite the "special order" category the bill got. The pandemic must be largely the cause since building a trash-burner doesn't compete well with other health concerns.
THE PROBLEM: It's not hard to see the problem. The Sanggunian approved the building of a WTE facility that existing laws still prohibit, at least as of today and the next two months or so. Congress still has to reconvene after the elections and may not take it up soon enough.
BOPK Councilor Alvin Dizon argued -- before the minority was outvoted (9 for, 5 against, 2 abstained) -- that the country prohibits incineration under Republic Act #8749 or the Philippine Clean Air Act. Dizon has repeatedly condemned incineration as a toxic method but he may not have pushed strongly enough this point: the City Council cannot allow what an existing law disallows, as it is "ultra vires" or outside its authority. An ordinance shall not "contravene the Constitution or any statute" or it will be invalid.
PRO-WTE ARGUMENTS. Barug Councilors Joel Garganera and Phillip Zafra, among others who voted for the ordinance, echo the pitch of Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, SB #1789's principal sponsor, "that contrary to the arguments that the operation of a WTE plant poses a threat to public health and the environment, such facility will require air pollution control systems to ensure emissions are within the standards of Philippine Clean Air Act."
The House of Representatives already approved on third and final reading House Bill #7829. Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, who led the bill's approval in the House, said "we must now look for a cleaner and more sustainable method to treat and dispose of solid waste, such as WTE."
AMENDATORY MOVES. Both the House version, titled "Waste Treatment Technology Act," and the Senate version, titled "Waste to Energy Act," share the same goal to "establish a national energy policy and regulatory framework for facilities using waste-to-energy policies."
The bills seek to amend the existing law, the Clean Air Act, and enable a local government to build and operate, a prohibited act. The amendments aim to set rules for local governments and other entities even as they remove legal obstacle for them to run WTE facilities.
'INCINERATOR IN DISGUISE.' Opposers such as the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) Asia Pacific said the facilities to be allowed under the proposed amendments are "effectively incinerators, fueled by municipal waste, that release toxic chemicals into their immediate surroundings."
WTE is "simply incinerator in disguise," GAIA said in November last year. It burns "tons of municipal wasters to emit a small amount of energy while emitting massive amounts of toxic pollutants."
Those who object to the congressional move may also point out that government agencies and LGUs have poor record in regulating sensitive undertakings and enterprises.
MORE ON BENEFIT, LESS ON HARM. Debate on the WTE JVA in the March 9 Sanggunian session dwelt less on the public-health issue than on the benefit it would give the City. BOPK Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr. worried over the increase in the cost of hauling and disposing of the garbage and how much the City would earn from the enterprise. Thus, he pressed for the disclosure of the site, which New Sky Energy still had to pick.
Minority Floor Leader Nestor Archival Sr. pressed for the "right procedure" in approving the JVA, not really opposing the proposal, just complaining the councilors were not getting enough information.
PUBLIC HEALTH IS CORE. Core issue in the disagreement between government and environmentalists is public health. Incineration poisons the air people breathe, contend those against WTE.
Those who're for incineration, like Senator Gatchalian, warn that "if we do not act now, the garbage crisis is poised to do irreparable damage to the environment and people's health." Bottom line for each: the health of the people.
That aspect wasn't what caused the long discussion at the city Sanggunian.
'ONLY IF FEASIBLE.' Even if Congress would pass the WTE bill and the president, whoever succeeds President Rodrigo Duterte, would sign it into law, local governments may note what Gatchalian said in his 2020 sponsorship speech, namely, that the law wouldn't be "a mandate" for LGUs to put up WTE plants against their will.
"No one will stop LGUs from continuing with MRFs and sanitary landfills as their facilities of choice." It merely empowers LGUs to adopt WTE "if and only if it is feasible."
IN MIKE'S HANDS, OR NOT. There was no clash of arguments over the legality of the joint venture at this time, when the existing law still prohibits it. Dizon didn't push further to question the basis of the committee on laws -- or possibly the City Legal Office too -- in not finding legal obstacle to the building and operation of an incinerator in the city.
It is now in the hands of Mayor Michael Rama, who was not the mayor when the proposal was negotiated but is the mayor at the time the JVA is up for signing. Mayor Mike may approve the ordinance (a) by signing it or (2) by not communicating in 10 days his veto to the City Council, in which case it shall be deemed approved as if he had signed it.
An avowed upholder of the rule of law, Rama is seen as highly likely to "sit" on the project and wait for the WTE bill in Congress to become law. He may not sign the ordinance or he may allow it to lapse into effectivity -- and yet not move to implement the JVA.
Or the results of the election might take the decision-making from his hands, a possibility that, Mayor Mike told broadcaster Andi Pateña in an interview, he never entertains.