The public hearing, attended by hundreds of villagers, was conducted at the covered court in Barangay Pabanlag here where the proposed project will be built.
An audio-visual presentation of the Bukit Tagar Sanitary Landfill/Waste-to-Energy Plant which services Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and how it operates was presented by the project proponent Floridablanca Enviro Corp. (FEC), a subsidiary of Berjaya Philippines, Inc. Conspicuously absent were the reported opponents of the project.
According to Michael Tapang, consultant of FEC, invitations were sent to the opponents of the project but they sent word that they won’t attend the public hearing.
Offi cials of Berjaya Enviro Corp., parent company of Berjaya Philippines, which operates and manages the Malaysian sanitary landfill and waste to energy plant, led by its president Chock Eng Tah, director Eng Hwa, chief operating officer Koh Chee Yong and senior general manager Peter Wong were present in the public hearing as well as Berjaya Philippines, Inc. country manager Paulino S. Soo and other FEC executives.
Village chiefs in the town took turns in telling the people what they saw in Malaysia debunking speculations that it will be similar to the Payatas and Smokey Mountain dumpsites in Quezon City as opponents of the proposal want to project.
A question and answer portion in the program followed later where queries from the villagers were answered by the said officials.
And at the end of the public hearing, a roll call was made on the present village officials who all signified their approval of the proposal.
When asked by the media, Pabanlag barangay captain Ernesto Manasan said they have already passed “a resolution of no objection” to the proposed sanitary landfill/waste-to-energy project in December last year.
“Masalese ya ampo dakal a benipisyu ing maganap kekami (It is suitable and it will give us a lot of benefits,” Manasan said.
But what struck him most, he said, was the absence of foul smell and flies in the Malaysian site as well as its state-of-the-art leachate treatment facility.
The village chief said he went to Malaysia with some members of the provincial board of Pampanga last year and saw for himself how the sanitary landfill/waste-to-energy plant is being managed and operated.
On April 7, four more village chiefs and two village councilmen as well as members of the media visited the said sanitary landfill/waste-to-energy plant in Selangor which is about 50 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur. Manasan said a certain Senen Tongol, who is opposing the project, has been misleading his barrio mates by showing them photos of the Payatas and Smokey Mountain dumpsites in Quezon City.
Meanwhile, Tapang said a similar resolution of “no objection” was also passed by the municipal council here. He said at the moment, all needed documents and requirements are being met by FEC.
“We are still complying with the requirements. There are still some soil testing and boring tests that have to be done,” he said.
Tapang said as soon as the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources issues an environmental compliance certificate for the proposal, construction will immediately start on the project which will take about 18 months to complete.
The project site will sit on a 100-hectare property in Barangay Pabanlag here just a short distance from the Subic-Clark- Tarlac Expressway.
