Idle Balili land

Before we drown the Balili land scam in cries of “harassment” and political persecution, Cebuanos should ask what public interest — as opposed to personal interest — was served in purchasing 24.9 hectares of land in Naga, lots that were mostly submerged in water.

Four years after the coastal land was bought and bulldozed, the Balili property remains a half-finished, unused, plastic-lined “secured landfill”.

It didn’t live up to its purpose (one of many) as a giant ashtray for the coal ash residue of a nearby Korean-owned power plant. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), upon further scrutiny, has doubts that the landfill’s design and construction are environmentally sound. Until these standards are met, the sprawling, excavated pits and former fish ponds in southern Naga town remain barren and idle.

For this, the Province of Cebu paid P98.9 million in two checks.

Both checks went to Atty. Romeo Balili (not the Balili Estate), who is a nephew and executor of the estate of the late Engineer Luis Balili, whose widow Amparo, is also impleaded in graft charges filed last Friday before the Sandiganbayan against Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and five other Capitol officials.

A review of Cebu Daily News articles since the start of the land purchase in 2008 showed the many noble goals the seaside property in barangay Tinaan, Naga were said to be intended for.

It was to be a special economic industrial zone like that of Mactan, said Provincial Board Member Juan Bolo in 2009, when he sponsored the resolution in the Board to authorize Gov. Gwen Garcia to buy the land.

He said the price was “cheap” at P400 per square meter.

Later on, Capitol officials talked of putting up a waste-to-energy plant there, and using the structures there for workshops and seminars.

Governor Garcia said the coast was ideal for an international port.

No geodetic survey was made to check boundaries.

No titles were checked in the Register of Deeds.

No feasibility study was made.

In the end, the Capitol earned a quick $1 million (P48 million) that year from the Korean Electric Company, which paid for use of the area as a future coal ash disposal facility.

From ambitious plans for an industrial haven, the Balili dream saw reality as a waste pit for the dirtiest, cheapest, polluting source of energy – coal. And even that function, it can’t fulfill.