Gatchalian hopeful for passage of waste management measure

Gatchalian said the proposed measure will allow incineration of wastes, among others, but pointed out that he will push for the explicit reiteration of a recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling saying incineration will only be allowed provided that the incinerator will not emit toxic fumes and hazardous gases. (File Photo: Senator Win Gatchalian/Facebook)

MANILA — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is optimistic that Senate Bill 363, or the proposed framework for Waste-to-Energy Act, will soon get thumbs up from senators.

At the sidelines of the Forum on Renewable Energy and Waste-to-Energy jointly hosted by the PPP Center and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Makati City on Friday, Gatchalian said consultations with some stakeholders have been conducted.

“Hopefully, within a few months, we can pass this bill,” he said.

Gatchalian said the proposed measure will allow incineration of wastes, among others, but pointed out that he will push for the explicit reiteration of a recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling saying incineration will only be allowed provided that the incinerator will not emit toxic fumes and hazardous gases.

He also said the most special feature of the bill is giving the national government “explicit powers to enter into PPP (public private partnership) contracts on waste-to-energy and mandate LGUs (local government units) to bring their waste to that facility.”

Gatchalian noted the measure leans more towards waste management, but with a positive advantage on energy generation, particularly on renewable energy (RE).

He further said LGUs will be encouraged to form clusters or voluntary aggregation for their wastes, which will be used as feedstocks for RE plants.

Private companies that will help fund the program will be given Board of Investment (BOI) incentives, among others, he said.

“We’re also thinking of giving some feed-in tariff depending on the situation because we don’t want the feed-in tariff to be an additional burden to our consumers,” he added.