The wasted opportunity for a WTE in Dagupan
By Leonardo Micua
BUSINESS tycoon Ramon Ang, chairman of the board and CEO of San Miguel Corporation, has once again made headlines with a dual proposal for Metro Manila.
In addition to offering a flood control solution at no cost to local governments, he intends to build a waste-to-energy (WTE) facility with no profit to his company, and has asked mayors to bring their cities’ waste to the facility.
While the flood control project addresses a long-standing problem, the WTE facility seems to be a more realistic and achievable goal. A similar project was offered to Dagupan six years ago at no cost to the city government, but for no other valid reason except politics, this was junked.
An international company based in Singapore, Sure Global, was poised to install the necessary equipment on a two-hectare lot in Bonuan that was segregated for the purpose in a proclamation signed by then President Noynoy Aquino.
However, the plan was shelved by the then newly assumed Lim administration, simply because if the project came into fruition, the credit would have gone to his predecessor, Belen Fernandez.
The fact that a major conglomerate like San Miguel is now proposing a similar WTE project for Metro Manila strongly indicates that the technology is both viable and environmentally friendly.
Just to refresh the mind, the Dagupan project was rejected in 2019 by then-Mayor Brian Lim, who voiced as a mere alibi his fear that burning garbage would emit a significant amount of carbon into the air and potentially damage the earth’s ozone layer.
But a company of San Miguel’s stature would not likely propose such a project if it were truly harmful to the environment.
Unfortunately, when Mayor Belen wrested back her post from Lim in 2022, Sure Global was no longer interested in pursuing the project, nor was it willing to do any more business with the city because of the raw deal it got from the Lim administration.
That no-brainer decision of Lim to scrap the project, when it was already nearing its execution stage, was a big loss to Dagupan and its people.
Dagupan would have been the forerunner in the country for this kind of technology. Sayang!
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Dagupan Councilor Marcelino Fernandez wanted Councilor Dada Reyna to name any of their colleagues whom the latter had earlier accused of laughing and rejoicing by clapping their hands when she was getting what sounded like a dressing down from Vice Mayor Bryan Kua during the session last August 7.
At that time, Kua uttered in frustration over the actions of Reyna: “Sana tumabi na lang kayo sa gilid at manood na lang,” in a sharp retort to Reyna’s earlier privilege speech.
Three times, Fernandez asked Reyna to point out who among their colleagues displayed an uncalled-for behavior, but the lady councilor refused, leading Fernandez to suspect that she might only be making a false narrative to put the Sanggunian in a bad light.
Reyna, however, stood by her words. But unable to identify the ones who were supposedly bullying her, the lady councilor alienated herself more with members of the “super majority” in the Sangguniang.
As the lone opposition in the council, she should accept her fate that she has no ally to lean on, nor anyone to at least second her motion if she files a motion or ordinance.
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I did not know that fish pens are again teeming in the city’s various rivers until I watched through a livestream the committee hearing of the Dagupan council on a proposed ordinance seeking to empower Mayor Belen, through the Bantay Ilog Task Force, to demolish these structures.
It was Mayor Belen herself who saw the fish pens from afar when she was along the JdV Expressway Extension to monitor the height of the flood in Dagupan, and she posted it on her Facebook page.
In the hearing, Councilor Lino Fernandez partly blamed the fish pens constructed near the mouth of the Calmay River as one of the reasons for the slow recession of the last flood that hit Dagupan.
Methinks, Mayor Belen is clothed with enough police power to demolish all these illegal fish pens without the need of another ordinance.
Unfortunately, the Task Force Bantay Ilog is yet unable to identify those who are behind the new surge of illegal fish pens in the rivers.
The Sanggunian must pounce Task Force Bantay Ilog to look for these culprits.
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