DAVAO CITY – Vice President-elect Sara Duterte on Monday, June 20, vowed to push two big ticket projects that she initiated during her term as mayor here – the High Priority Bus System (HPBS) and Waste to Energy Project (WTE) – to President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Duterte said in a press conference that she is set to meet the official handling the HPBS and WTE to discuss them but revealed that she initially gave instructions to communicate with the Department Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Department of Transportation (DOTr) to allow proper turnover from the Duterte to Marcos administration.
“I will endeavor to push for two projects in the administration of President Marcos,” she said.
The HPBS, a transport modernization project, seeks to address the problem of traffic congestion in this city.
According to the DOTr, the bus system is scheduled for implementation from 2020 to 2023, and aims to “provide an efficient and affordable mode of transport for Dabawenyos through the delivery” of a modern HPBS.
It added that interconnected bus services would be prioritized on the 137-kilometer (kms) core network and 489 kms of feeder routes.
Once operational, the HPBS will have 29 bus routes divided into the following four tiers: Metro Davao (will form the core services that connect all major commercial centers along five routes), Davao Inter (will run along with eight routes connecting the inner urban areas directly to the Davao Central Business District), Davao Feeder (will run along nine routes linking smaller centers and areas of more dispersed populations to the Metro Davao services), and Davao Local (will provide a link between the outer rural areas of the city and main transport system or the integrated terminals).
The city government plans to build a WTE project in a 10-hectare property in Biao Escuela, Tugbok District.
The city government has identified the WTE as among the programs and campaigns that Mayor Duterte’s administration is undertaking to achieve a “cleaner and greener city.”
Atty. Mark Peñalver, executive director of environmental group Interfacing Development Inventions for Sustainability (IDIS), said in a statement that he hopes the Vice President-elect would still change her position on the WTE.
“We would like to congratulate her for her win and, hopefully, she will bring the environmental policies and interventions for sustainability that she did in Davao nationally and continue to champion environmental protection and sustainability. We hope she will also change her position with regard to WTE,” he said.
According to No Burn Pilipinas, a coalition of environmental advocates in the Philippines, there are “documented failures of WTE from economic and investment perspectives and these are mostly from advanced and rich countries such as the UK, Germany, and Australia.”
The coalition said, “Emissions from incinerators contain heavy metals, dioxins, and furans, which may be present in the waste gases, water, or ash. Plastic and metals are the major sources of the calorific value of the waste.”
“The combustion of plastics, like polyvinyl chloride (PVC), gives rise to these highly toxic pollutants,” it added.
It said WTE is the most expensive way to produce energy.