Squabbling between top Cotabato execs derails waste disposal facility

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Political squabbling between Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. and Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema is threatening the future of a proposed 2.5-million-euro (P153.2 million) waste disposal plant here.

The project was proposed jointly by the German company Herhof Gmbh, the Greek company Helector SA and the US-based Zehira Llc. in March and subsequently approved by the city council, which Sema chairs. But Guiani has rejected it.

“You cannot just approve a foreign-funded project in one sitting,” Guiani said. “It needs thorough study and series of talks with our technical group to ensure that it will really benefit the city and its residents.”

He charged that city council’s action was hasty and premature.

“Why the rush?” Guiani said.

He said the alleged lack of propriety of the city council’s act was the  reason he rejected a proposed meeting between him and the project’s proponents.

“It did not happen, and I don’t want to enter into any agreement with anyone whom I have not met,” Guiani said.

Sema denied the allegation that the council bypassed the chief executive, saying that the General Services Office, one of Mayor Guiani’s technical arms, had been invited to a briefing on the project.

The differences between the two politicians date  back to the time when Sema was  mayor of Cotabato City and Guiani his vice mayor.

Even the plan to purchase closed-circuit TV cameras in the aftermath of the 2009 bomb explosion outside the Mary Immaculate Cathedral here had to be placed on hold because of the disagreements between the two.