Bacolod City’s recent push toward a Waste-to-Energy (WTE) program has sparked growing public concern across local communities, civil society networks, environmental advocates, professionals, faith leaders, and ordinary Bacolodnons. What began as technical discussions within government circles has now become a broader public issue—one that raises important questions on transparency, public participation, environmental governance, and accountability.
The recently formed Zero Waste Alliance Negros Occidental (ZWAN) reflects this growing public engagement. The alliance brings together youth leaders, environmental advocates, professionals, community organizations, faith-based groups, and citizens who share a common call: that major environmental decisions must be grounded on science, transparency, and meaningful public consultation.
For many residents, Waste-to-Energy remains a complex and poorly understood concept. During a recent public forum, Dr. Jorge Emmanuel of Silliman University, an environmental scientist with expertise in waste management and public health, emphasized the environmental and health implications associated with thermal waste treatment technologies. Discussions included concerns surrounding toxic emissions, residual ash disposal, long-term financial dependence on waste generation, and the potential undermining of waste reduction, segregation, recycling, and composting programs.
Science matters because decisions involving public health and the environment carry consequences that can last for generations.
While Bacolod City officials have publicly cited support and guidance from the Department of Energy (DOE) in advancing the WTE initiative, the public also deserves to hear from agencies mandated to evaluate environmental and health impacts. These include the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as well as the relevant offices of the Department of Health (DOH). Their assessments are essential in determining whether such a program is environmentally sound, socially acceptable, financially viable, and consistent with existing ecological solid waste management policies.
At present, many Bacolodnons are still trying to understand how the City Government moved so quickly from discussions and program approval toward procurement actions connected to the proposed WTE initiative. Legitimate questions are being raised regarding process, timing, technical preparedness, and the adequacy of public consultation.
Good public governance demands that projects of this nature, scale and impact undergo rigorous open review before procurement actions proceed. Among the key prerequisites is a comprehensive Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS), which determines the actual composition, volume, and characteristics of a locality’s waste stream. Such studies provide a critical basis for crucial decisionmaking by Bacolod LGU since it establishes whether a WTE facility is appropriate or essential.
Without complete and publicly accessible studies, feasibility assessments, and environmental evaluations, it becomes difficult for citizens, technical experts, and stakeholders to independently assess the merits, risks, and long-term implications of the proposed project.
Equally important is the need to examine available alternatives. Across the Philippines and globally, many local governments are demonstrating that Zero Waste strategies can significantly reduce landfill dependence while creating jobs and strengthening community participation. Approaches centered on waste segregation at source, composting, recycling, materials recovery facilities, and circular economy systems have shown measurable success in reducing waste generation without introducing additional environmental and health risks.
Examples shared by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) highlighted how local governments such as Dumaguete City and communities in Pampanga have advanced more decentralized and community-based waste management solutions. These examples deserve careful consideration as Bacolod charts its own path forward.
Recent procurement developments connected to the WTE initiative have also raised important questions regarding transparency and technical preparedness. Publicly available information regarding the contractor’s organizational profile and technical track record warrants closer public scrutiny, especially given the scale and complexity of any future WTE undertaking. As public funds and long-term environmental and health outcomes are involved, citizens have every right to demand openness regarding project rationale, technical studies for various project components and activities, procurement plan and schedule.
This is a call for transparency and openness to ensure that public interest is safeguarded. The call for an Open Government is currently given renewed rigour by DBM, as it further pushes its public financial management reforms across the levels of government. This is a citizens’ response as part of that call for Open Government partnership.
At its core, this issue is larger than a single technology or procurement process. It is about how development decisions are made, who gets consulted, and whether environmental governance remains transparent, participatory, and accountable to the CITIZENS it affects.
Open Government is not merely a slogan observed during a commemorative week. It is a continuing obligation to ensure that public decisions—especially those with long-term environmental and public health consequences—are subjected to meaningful public scrutiny, scientific rigor, and democratic participation.
Bacolod deserves solutions to its waste challenges. But it also deserves transparency, accountability, and the full participation of its citizens in shaping the city’s environmental and public health future.*
• DARLENE MAY CASIANO, Retired Director III, Department of Budget and Management Manila and Affiliate Lecturer, Graduate School of Public Administration and Governance at Central Philippine State University, Kabankalan City
