One voice sought on Jancom deal

Get your act together.

This was the order of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court to the solicitor general and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) yesterday as a hearing on the controversial P390-billion garbage disposal deal with Jancom Environment Corp. was postponed.

Pasig City RTC Judge Santiago Estrella of Branch 68 issued the order after it appeared that the solicitor general and the MMDA were clueless on the government’s stand on the implementation of a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract with Jancom that was upheld by the Supreme Court in April.

Estrella ordered the two agencies to forge a united stand on the issue as he postponed to Oct. 18 a hearing on Jancom’s omnibus motion seeking to compel MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando to implement the controversial garbage disposal deal.

Jancom lawyer Manuel Molina said the company did not want to go to court anew after the high court ruled with finality on April 15 that the government could not rebid the contract because it was "valid and perfected."

"We really did not like to come to court since this matter was already decided by the Supreme Court," Molina said.

But he said Jancom was disturbed by the attitude of Fernando who, he said, "defied the Supreme Court ruling" by announcing that the implementation of the Jancom contract was not in the MMDA’s current garbage disposal plans.

Molina said Fernando has not even bothered to meet with them on an amended agreement that Jancom had forged with former MMDA chairman Benjamin Abalos.

"We are hoping that the government would deal with us since we already downscaled our technology since it was objected to by environmentalists," Molina said.

Jancom president Alfonso Tuazon said that based on the agreement with Abalos, his company had already begun constructing two temporary transfer stations and the interim dumpsite in Rodriguez, Rizal.

Jancom officials also said they and their principal foreign partner Vivendi Environmental will be investing over $150 million for the sanitary landfill facility, the transfer or recycling facilities, the transport fleet and the post-operation and maintenance of the landfill site.

Jancom and Abalos forged the amended agreement after the SC ruling, which also provided that although the contract was valid, its implementation depended on President Arroyo.

"The power of determining whether or not the deal is disadvantageous to the government lies with the executive department, specifically the Office of the President.

"These considerations are primarily and exclusively a matter for the President to decide. As to the necessity, expediency, and wisdom of the contract, these are outside the realm of judicial adjudication," the third division said in its seven-page resolution.

The high court stressed that while it acknowledges that the garbage problem in the country is of prime importance, it can only delve on the validity of the contract and that implementation of such contracts would always be up to the government.

"While the Court recognizes that the garbage problem is a matter of grave public concern, it can only declare that the contract in question is a valid and perfected one between the parties, but the same is still ineffective or unimplementable unless it is approved by the President, the contract itself providing that such approval by the President is necessary for its effectivity," the SC stated.

But Mrs. Arroyo said on April 17 that she would not implement the original BOT contract because it supposedly violated landmark environmental laws, notably the Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, and was financially disadvantageous to the government.

Jancom chairman Leonides Gonzales himself said his firm would respect whatever may be the final decision of the President on the project but hoped the government would be willing to explore alternatives on the contracts implementation.

Jancom also agreed to downgrade the proposed trash disposal system from an incineration plant to a sanitary landfill instead because the former is expressly prohibited by environmental laws.

Jancom also agreed to reduce its tipping fee, or the cost of disposing of the garbage, from $32 (around P1,655 at the current rate) per ton to $20.50 (P1.060) per ton.

But Abalos had earlier said that garbage experts said the tipping fee should be around $18.89 (P979) per ton, which was the lowest bid received by the MMDA from Jancom’s rival Pro-Environment Consortium.