You may call it a victory for Gov. Gwen F. Garcia and the Province of Cebu that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has finally issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) on the controversial Balili property in Tinaan, Naga.
This was the subject of so many attacks against the Provincial government and personally against Gov. Gwen during the elections, thrown not only by her political opponents, but also by those self-proclaimed environmentalists who more often than not overdramatize their concerns to the point of making it impossible for Cebu to come up with any power plant that other nations are using. They insist on the so-called Renewable Energy which is either too expensive on a per kilowatt basis or simply not cost effective, which the ordinary power consumers could ill-afford.
So now the Province of Cebu can move on and allow the Kepco-SPC power company to dump their coal ash into the Balili property, thus making this a money-making venture for the Province of Cebu. That the Province earned some US$.5M on this property means that it is Gov. Gwen who is now laughing all the way to the bank! To think nothing is happening yet there.
I gathered that other power companies using coal as their principal energy source are also interested in dumping coal ash in that property. Best of all, the coal ash can be used for material in road construction. So in that sense, this is not only the victory of the Governor, but also the victory of the people of Cebu.
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Last Tuesday, The Freeman came up with a report that Engr. Paul Villarete, former Cebu City Urban Planning Officer who has recently been appointed as the new General Manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) apparently figured in an “incident.” His vehicle was placed in-between an aircraft that landed and the aircraft marshal’s vehicle that guides the plane to its parking bay.
An aircraft marshal’s vehicle is the one that bears a huge “Follow Me” sign in yellow and black stripes to guide pilots as they taxi into the ramp area. As the article point out, the Airport GM denied this ever happened. However, yesterday morning, a radio commentator was blasting away against the Airport GM for crossing the runway. This only proves that a story repeated many times results in more confusion as to what the truth really is. I don’t think that Engr. Villarete’s car crossed the runway at all.
As a veteran journalist, I have always believed in the dictum “When there is smoke, there must be fire.” This particular story gives us an idea that the truth on this incident must be somewhere in-between. What could have happened was Engr. Villarete probably crossed in between an airplane and the aircraft marshal’s vehicle, which Mr. Villarete vehemently denied.
Why is a marshal’s vehicle important to the pilot? That’s because commercial aircrafts stand very tall and the pilot cannot see the taxiway in front of him because of the height of the aircraft. This is why the marshal’s vehicle has a sign “Follow Me” perched high on the back of his vehicle and yes, no one is allowed to cross between these two as it is very dangerous.
Amid this report and the GM’s denial, what is crystal clear here is that despite his being new on the job, someone is already eyeing to grab his position by undermining him and reporting anything wrong he does. I have already said in a previous column that Engr. Villarete arrived, totally inexperienced in running an airport. He is on an “on-the-job-training” (OJT) just like Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III who appointed him, who is also an OJT in Malacañang. Hence, we can expect certain mishaps along the way. But the undermining in MCIAA hasn’t stopped!
After attacking the Airport GM, the radio commentator ended his tirade by selling a name who is supposedly more qualified to be GM of the airport. I won’t mention that name yet, but his name was already mentioned on the airlanes and I’m sure many people know who he is. When the time comes, we will reveal this person who is oozing with personal ambition and using his friends in the media to destroy his fellow workers in the airport.
My advice to Paul Villarete is to watch his back. He doesn’t know that his enemies are close to him. In the famous tragedy by Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar” was stabbed in the back by his closest friend Marcus Brutus because he was cajoled into believing the ugly spin perpetrated by Caius Cassius that Caesar would turn Rome into a monarchy. So his best friend stabbed him in the Senate. In MCIAA there is someone who plays Caius Cassius and it will be another Brutus who’d stab Villarete’s back, so he better beware of the Ides of… not necessarily in March.
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Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com