Inayawan waste-to-energy project questioned

A CEBU City councilor voiced reservations to a partnership between City Hall and Greenergy Solutions, Inc.for the Inayawan  landfill waste-to-energy project.

Councilor Nida Cabrera said she may question the project once it reaches the City Council for approval.

Cabrera said though she is endorsing the project to the City Council, she is still verifying first the partnership agreement with the investors, the source of funding and the project’s sustainability.

“I’m endorsing the project to the council but for the contract Greenergy Solution Inc. (GSI) needs to make a full disclosure,” she said in reaction to an earlier pronouncement by GSI not to disclose yet the details of the project.

The agreement is still at the hands of the Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB), chaired by lawyer Janeses Ponce.

SWMB and GSI entered into the agreement last May. Earlier, Ponce said Mayor Michael Rama supports the project.

But he admitted that the mayor needs authorization from the City Council before signing the partnership agreement.

“Actually I’m endorsing the project, not the contract yet because it should be studied first by the council,” said Cabrera, also a member of SWMB.

“We will study the roles of each investor and clarify if GSI is just the broker,” Cabrera added.

Cabrera said she had to verify first what happened to GSI’s project in San Fernando, Pampanga.

“It’s the first project of GSI, and the proponent of the project is also Ruth Briones,” she said.

Under the agreement, the City Council shall pass and approve a resolution authorizing the city mayor to enter into an agreement with GSI for the waste-to-energy project.

Briones, president and chief executive officer of GSI said there’s nothing to be worried about the San Fernando, Pampanga project because the “project is already operating.”

She said the pending implementation of the project was not due to internal problems of the management.

“We are just waiting the approval of the national government,” Briones told Cebu Daily News.

Briones said the government will still check the “sedentary renewable energy package” which forms part of its negotiation for its ceiling price.

Briones said she gave up her co-ownership in  September 2009 and the right of ownership was already transferred to an American company, who currently runs the project.

“When I decided to give up my ownership last  2009, I left it with complete permits,” Briones said.

Previously, the project in San Fernando was 25 percent American owned and 70 percent owned by Briones.

She said she used her own P1 million  cash for the project.  Briones said GSI is “100 percent Filipino-owned.

The $102 million project in Inayawan Sanitary Landfill is funded by two investors – Sinova Holdings and Boustead Engineering Limited. /Tweeny M. Malinao, Correspondent