MMDA says no to Jancom contract

"The Metro Manila Development Authority cannot, in conscience, implement contracts that are deemed disadvantageous to the government and the Filipino people."

Thus stressed MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando as he stood firm on his decision not to entertain the eight year-old build-operate-transfer (BOT) garbage disposal contract of Jancom Environmental Corp.

Fernando also decried alleged efforts by unnamed individuals who are allegedly pushing for the contract by seeking the endorsement of officials close to President Arroyo.

"As far as the government and I are concerned, it (the Jancom contract) is a non-issue," Fernando said, citing an earlier decision and recommendation of the Metro Mayors Council not to implement the contract.

Fernando admitted that the agency needs to find a new dumpsite or landfill within the next three years or another garbage crisis will hit the metropolis since those being used now will have to be closed or will be full by then.

The MMDA is dumping thrash at sanitary landfills and controlled dumpsites in San Pedro Laguna; Capaz, Tarlac; Rodriguez, Rizal; and also in Payatas, Quezon City.

Fernando said incinerators might solve the problem which is why he will support the idea of amending the Clean Air Act so as to make it more updated and so as to allow the use of incineration as a way of getting rid of garbage.

Jancom originally proposed for the use of incinerators when it presented its deal but it shifted to the use of sanitary landfills when the Clean Air Act was passed into a law.

Jancom, who claims it can manage Metro Manila’s garbage collection and disposal well, was awarded the P390-billion contract in 1997 through a special presidential task force under then President Fidel Ramos but the latter did not sign it and instead endorsed it to the incoming Estrada administration.

The Estrada administration, on the other hand, called for a new public bidding for the operation of a landfill which was won by a different company prompting Jancom to file a case against the government.

Contrary to the government’s position, the validity of the Jancom contract was upheld by a Pasig Regional Trial Court and by the Court of Appeals. In April 2002, the Supreme Court likewise affirmed with finality Jancom’s contract.

The High Tribunal, however, added that the contract can only be effective and implemented after President Arroyo approves it, while also refraining from ruling on whether the contract is advantageous or disadvantageous to the government noting that the same falls "outside the realm of judicial adjudication."

In a bid to win government support, Jancom officials later on forged a new tie-up with Hong Kong-based landfill-developer Onyx Co. Ltd. to implement its "incinerator-less, trimmed down" contract to only include the establishment of a materials recovery facility (MRF) and sanitary landfill which it claimed would be located in Pililia, Rizal.

But the Pililia Municipal Planning and Development Office denied that Jancom owns a site in their town intended for a landfill explaining that negotiations for Jancom’s acquisition of a 10-hectare lot in Bgy. Bugarin fell through about seven years ago.