KOREAN BANK eyes $62-M waste to energy plant in Lubao.
Shouts the headline of a frontpage story in Sun-Star Pampanga Tuesday, that read:
The Korea Technology Bank (KTB) is eyeing to build a $62-million state-of-the-art solar power plant in Lubao town that is seen to help solve the province’s environmental problems.
Waste Professional Engineer Youn Ku Lee said on Monday, July 23, that KTB is willing to develop the facility, which will convert waste into solar energy…
Uh-oh. Red flag instantly raised there — “convert waste into solar energy.”
Okay, call me an idiot. But for the love of Apollo and Ra, pray tell, Einstein and Tesla, how can waste be converted into solar energy?
Not that Wikipedia is gospel truth but I subscribe to its reference to solar energy as “radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants, and artificial photosynthesis.”
Where impacts waste there?
My average layman’s knowledge of waste-to-energy plants is that wastes – both industrial and domestic – undergo some kind of incineration to some extreme heat level which is then processed into some kind of energy. Plain, simple thinking there.
Now, with the Sun itself as source, what need is there for wastes to incinerate to produce solar energy. Plain, simple thinking there.
Convert waste into solar energy? Way, way beyond my (un)intelligence to imagine whatever aspect of the project the Korean proponents presented to Gov. Lilia G. Pineda and Lubao Mayor Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab at Max’s Villa del Sol on Monday, July 23. Now, now, come to (un)think of it: Ain’t these Koreans only forward thinking, as in “advanced mag-isip”?
Look, even as they are yet eyeing to set up the plant in an as yet unknown location in Lubao, they have already a name for it: “Pampanga State Waste Energy Facility Construction and Management Project.” O, di ba advanced mag-isip yan?
Already a “Pampanga State” when federalism has not even gone beyond the rough draft presented to the President by the council he created for that purpose!
Already a “Pampanga State” when the federalism draft named only 18 regional states, of which the Province of Pampanga makes but a component of one — the Central Luzon State!
State-ot-the-art thinking, aye, prescience, by the Koreans truly there, given the ascendancy of Pampanga’s favorite daughter GMA ascending to the House speakership hours after the Koreans made their presentation to Nanay and Mayora last Monday.
Yeah, forward thinking these Koreans are, as proven in one more current news story this week. In Angeles City, a South Korean company named PHICO Corp. is reported in media as “planning to develop a retirement village” in the city’s Koreatown.
Sun-Star Pampanga quoted Philippine Investors and Retirement Industry Council (PIRIC) chair Albert Dela Cruz as saying that “some 200 villas, 6,000-square meter swimming pool, 27-foot man-made falls, hot and cold spa, and other attractions will be built inside the facility.”
Further, De La Cruz said that “PHICO Corp. officials, including Vice President Yoon Si Hyeon, led the ground-breaking ceremonies for the construction of P300 million Water Park Resort and Hotel…” And has a scheduled completion by December this year by project developer and contractor Philippine Globe Ventures Realty and Construction Corp., also chaired by De la Cruz.
“Planning to develop” in the first paragraph of the published news story, “groundbreaking held” in the third, “scheduled completion” in the sixth – O, di ba advanced mag-isip yan?
Uh-oh. Red flags raised again there: 6,000-square meter swimming pool. 27-foot manmade falls. There’s a lot of water needed there.
Pardon my retarded thinking then: Is the City of Angeles LGU even aware of this mega project on its already heavily impacted prime land? Has the DENR conducted studies, moreso issued reglementary documents – environment impact assessment, environment clearance certificate, etc. – to greenlight construction?
Someone with an intelligence superior to mine thinks the reddest flag though may well be waved at De la Cruz.
He is “of the gravest consideration” that Sun-Star Pampanga’s various descriptions of De la Cruz — chair, Philippine Investors and Retirement Industry Council; chair, Philippine Globe Ventures Realty and Construction Corp.; director, North Luzon Railways Corp. (Northrail); consultant, Sanggunian Tribung Aeta of CADT 025 in Mabalacat City, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac; and “an environmental and urban planner, realtor and real estate consultant, and a developer engaged in various development and housing projects” – “well constitute by themselves multiple conflicts of interest vis-avis PHICO Corp.’s retirement village project.”
O, di ba advanced mag-isip din ito?
