CARMEN SANITARY LANDFILL PROJECT
THE Cebu provincial government has convened a technical working group to discuss plans to open a sanitary landfill in the town of Carmen, northern Cebu under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement.
The group is headed by Governor Hilario Davide III as chairman; while its members will include the provincial treasurer, the provincial planning officer, and private sector representatives.
“Under the PPP ordinance, the province is interested to conduct a landfill so that the municipalities and cities will have a place to throw their trash,” said Rodel Bontuyan, supervising environmental management specialist of Provincial Environment and Natural Resources (PENRO).
The Provincial Capitol is currently accepting private sector proposals from those interested to build and operate the sanitary landfill in Carmen.
“The private proponent will undergo a selection process to determine its technical and financial capacity. We also have to check on the proponent’s track record and experience to determine capability,” said Bontuyan in Cebuano.
“Unsolicited proposal man na, so wala mi nagset og parameters so ang private sector na ang magpropose. Mao man na ang mechanism sa PPP,” he added.
(It is an unsolicited proposal, so we did not set up parameters for it. The private sector will propose. That is the mechanism of PPP.)
Four private companies reportedly expressed interest in building and operating the landfill but only one was able to submit a formal proposal so far.
The lone proposal was forwarded to the province’s PPP selection committee and technical working group for review.
Only proposals which underwent feasibility studies will be entertained by the selection committee, said Bontuyan.
The provincial government earlier purchased an 18-hectare land in Dauis, Carmen town which they planned to use as sanitary landfill for the Local Government Units (LGU) in the province.