PB defers Gwen’s bid for Balili waste to energy plant

THE Cebu Provincial Board (PB) set aside  approval of  a resolution seeking to authorize  Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to enter into a contract with a private firm for a waste to energy plant in the controversial Balili property in Naga City.

The draft contract  said the Province of Cebu would  enter into an agreement with Waste Management Inc. (WMI).

PB Member Alex Binghay said they will first amend the contract to incorporate Sinova Consortium as the party.

In her presentation last week, Gov. Garcia mentioned the Sinova consortium as part of her plans for a Proposed Tina-an Eco-Zone Development Plan and said she hopes the PB would speedily approve the plan for a  waste -to-energy facility there.

Also included were a port, a light industry, manufacturing services, a water reservoir and an eco-park.

Garcia said they  already prepared a proposed contract for the bidder, Sinova Consortium, which plans to build a  US $150 million facility.

Sinova will rent seven hectares in the Balili property  and use another  two hectares  for a sanitary landfill.

Sinova is expected to pay P30 per square meter on the lot or about P800,000 rental.

Garcia said the province would  receive a two percent share from the gross revenue of the facility or a projected P850 million in 25 years.

The waste-to-energy plant will be implemented on a build-operate-transfer scheme.

“After 25 years, we’ll own the facility which is situated in the Balili property,” she told the audience at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) last week.

PB Member Arleigh Sitoy said ‘the ends doen’t justify the means’ when the governor talked of plans of future revenue from the Balili estate, that is the current subject of a graft case by the Sandiganbayan over the 2008 irregular purchase of almost 25 hectares that was mostly under water in  barangay Tinaan,  Naga City, southern Cebu.

He said he raised this point after he and Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale were singled out by the governor after their visit in the Balili property was displayed on screen at her CICC presentation last week.

“No matter how good the plans are it doesn’t mean we should violate our laws. Our plans should follow the law,” he said.

Sitoy also cited what he alleged were “discrepancies” in the documents provided to them.

He said this includes the contract for the backfilling, notice to award and the notice to proceed.

Sitoy said a copy of the Notice to Proceed flashed on the screen didn’t indicate the date of the engagement.

It said the backfilling materials was for the “Land Development Project” in barangay Tinaan, Naga “for use of the Provincial Health Office.”

In an interview, Magpale said there was no certification in the contract.

The vice governor was mailed a copy of the documents presented by Gov. Gwen Garcia at CICC last week.

Magpale said she asked Capitol Engr. Adolfo Quiroga for clarifications on this.

In a separate interview, Quiroga said he didn’t provide the documents.

He said it was Bids and Awards Committee members Marivic Garces and Bernard Calderon who holds the documents. /Carmel Loise Matus, Correspondent