Workers to keep jobs once landfill is privatized

CEBU, Philippines - No worker assigned at the sanitary landfill in barangay Inayawan will lose employment once the landfill will be privatized, based on a Memorandum of Agreement proposed by Councilor Augustus Pe.

The proposed MOA is subject for approval by the committee on laws of the City Council.

The MOA says that FDRCON Company, Inc., the company that won the bidding to privatize the landfill, has the right to terminate or retain workers of City Hall but those that will not be absorbed by FDRCON will be assigned to other departments of City Hall.

Those working at the landfill are employed under the Department of Public Services.

FDRCON will manage, operate and maintain the sanitary landfill for 25 years. However, ownership of the area is still with the city government.

FDRCON will manage the landfill in accordance with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which includes responsibilities such as odor stabilization; landfill closure or transforming of the present site into a park; earning of carbon credits; putting up of a material recovery facility, an anearobic disaster and power plant, as well as a revenue producing facility.

The MOA stated that FDRCON will give the city a share of five percent gross revenue from electric and power sales while another 10 percent will be shared from its gross revenue from operations and by products.

But the sharing will begin only after the next six years in order to give FDRCON a chance to recover a portion of its investment.

However, income earned from carbon credits are automatically remitted without waiting for six years.

The city and FDRCON will sign the approved MOA upon awarding of the project to FDRCON.

The privatization of the landfill costs P100 million. — Ferliza C. Contratista/JMO (THE FREEMAN)