It’s final: Arroyo won’t sign Jancom garbage deal

It’s final.

President Arroyo junked yesterday a controversial $350-million garbage disposal project which she said had too many hitches.

Instead of pushing through with the contract with Jancom Environmental Corp., which was supposed to solve Metro Manila’s garbage problem once and for all, Mrs. Arroyo said the government will promote garbage segregation as an alternative and better long-term solution.

"Imbes na gumastos tayo sa kontratang may sabit (Instead of spending on a contract with hitches)," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo gave assurances anew that her decision to throw out the Jancom deal would not cause a repeat of Metro Manila’s garbage crisis two years ago.

She said "short-term solutions" have already been implemented to handle the 8,000 tons of garbage residents of the metropolis produce daily.

"We need immediate solutions combined with long-term solutions. So we already have these short-term solutions while we’re waiting for the long-term solutions which Jancom was supposed to answer for. But segregation is also long-term," Mrs. Arroyo said.

The funds originally intended for the Jancom project, Mrs. Arroyo said, would be used to finance a massive information campaign promoting garbage segregation.

This will be spearheaded by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), which is in charge of keeping Metro Manila clean.

Mrs. Arroyo made the announcement yesterday during a program in Malacañang held for the 36th biennial convention of the National Federation of Women’s Club of the Philippines.

She also enlisted the women’s federation to help the MMDA in the information campaign.

Last April 15, the Supreme Court ruled that the contract was above-board but said it was up to the President to implement it.

Mrs. Arroyo then left it to the MMDA to renegotiate the contract with Jancom Environmental Corp., which MMDA chairman Benjamin Abalos found too expensive.

Jancom wanted a tipping fee of $32 for every ton of garbage they handle, while Abalos wanted about $19 per ton.

Abalos said he would request Jancom to change its trash disposal facility to a sanitary landfill instead of an incineration plant which is banned by law.

Jancom chairman Leonides Gonzales expressed confidence that the MMDA would find the $32 tipping fee reasonable because the MMDA is already spending about $80 per ton of garbage.

Gonzales said Jancom and Vivendi, their principal partner, would invest over $150 million for the sanitary landfill facility, the transfer or recycling facilities, the transport fleet and the post-operation and maintenance of the landfill site.

Gonzales also hoped that Mrs. Arroyo would be convinced that the project offers the best permanent solution to Metro Manila’s perennial garbage problem.

In July 2000, the metropolis’ garbage problem came into focus when a mountain of garbage at the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City buried a shantytown and killed 240 people, many of them children.

Metro Manila’s garbage problem worsened when then President Joseph Estrada ordered Payatas closed because of the tragedy.

Mounds of garbage sprouted all over the metropolis as sanitation companies found no place to dump garbage, forcing Estrada to reopen Payatas.

A government attempt later to turn Semirara island in Antique into a landfill was junked after it ran into fierce protests. Critics said the project threatened the environment as well the tourism industry in the nearby resort island of Boracay.