BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong disclosed that the State-owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) will be bringing to the city a waste-to-energy demo unit to pilot test its operation near the temporary waste transfer station within the Baguio Dairy Farm to ascertain its feasibility when adopted by the city government as a solution to the prevailing garbage disposal problem.
The new city chief executive said that the waste-to-energy demo unit will be brought in to the city by PNOC, together with Japanese waste-to-energy experts, and install the same within a 1-hectare area near the waste transfer station for pilot testing purposes as it was the waste-to-energy facility that was seen and preferred by President Rodrigo R. Duterte when he visited Japan two months ago.
Initially, the Japanese experts will conduct an ocular inspection of the proposed for the demo unit to make the necessary recommendations on how to improve the area prior to the delivery of the said unit to the city.
“We will test the waste-to-energy demo unit in the city to ascertain its feasibility as a prelude to its installation in Antamok once the PNOC feasibility study on the waste-to-energy project is positive based on the ongoing feasibility study,” Mayor Magalong stressed.
He stated the demo unit is one of the two units provided by the operator of the Japanese waste-to-energy plant visited by the President in Japan and that the same will be pilot tested in the city.
Earlier, PNOC officials visited former mayor Mauricio G. Domogan and informed him and Magalong that energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Jr. approved the grant of P6 million to bankroll the finalization of the ongoing feasibility study for the put up of a waste-to-energy facility within the property of the Benguet Corporation (BC) that was ceded to the city government primarily for the establishment of the proposed integrated solid waste disposal facility.
Domogan and Magalong expressed their gratitude to the PNOC board and Secretary Cusi for shouldering the required amount for the completion of the ongoing feasibility study for the said project that will help address the garbage disposal problem of not only Baguio City but also the neighboring towns of Benguet such as La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay.
BC entered into an agreement with former Mayor Domogan to cede some 29.111 hectares of its Antamok property to the local government to be used for free for a maximum period of 50 years primarily to establish an integrated solid waste disposal facility that will include a waste-to-energy plan to produce renewable energy from garbage.
Magalong revealed he will personally talk to Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangadan to discuss the matter as the establishment of the waste-to-energy project will be beneficial in addressing the garbage problems of the different local governments within the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) area in compliance with Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the ecological Solid Waste management Act of 200.
Part of the more than 8 hectares ceded by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to the city within the Baguio Dairy Form will be used initially for the installation of the demo unit to ascertain the put up of the waste to energy facility in the city or its neighboring towns of Benguet. By Dexter A. See
