By Jade C. Zaldivar
After months of deferment, the City Council is set to vote next session on a resolution that will engage cooperation between the city government and medical waste treatment facility inventors’ group RAD Solutions.
First proposed to the city’s Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) in 2010, the medical waste treatment facility invented by RAD Solutions chief scientist Davao-born Roderick “Ricky” Dayot has the capability to disinfect, reduce mass and volume by 95 % all types of medical wastes including body parts, chemical and pharmacological wastes.
“All legal impediments were resolved, so we’re set to vote on it next week,” said resolution proponent committee on health chair Bernard Al-Ag.
“On estimate, Davao City’s hospitals produce about 2 to 3 tons of medical waste every day. As discussed in previous sessions, all hospitals in the city through their managers have manifested that a medical waste treatment facility is much needed,” Al-ag told Edge Davao.
A recipient of recognition during the national 2011 ON3 Pitching Competition, Dayot is one of two inventors in the country (the other one also from Davao) who have the privilege of attending Silicon Valley, California, home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations. He was cited for his invention – the Pyroclave Medwaste Solution.
“Other technologies in the Philippines, even in the world, go to unhealthy measures to burn medical waste without as much success rate as Pyrcoclave,” Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-Davao executive vice president Erriberto Barriga Jr. said in an earlier interview.
Barriga said that while Pyroclave can reduce waste mass and volume by 95%, other waste treatment facilities using the technologies of autoclave and microwave can only reduce this by 85 percent.
“At lahat ng klasing medical waste, yung needle sa mga injection, or body parts from operations, kaya nitong ma-totally disinfect. Other technologies can only burn up to 160 celcius as much as five hours at hindi pa ito total disinfection, ang Pyroclave it can burn up to 1000 celcius at the quickest time of an hour with total disinfection,” Barriga said.
“It’s not a matter kung sino ang mas maraming kliyente sa Pilipinas o kung sino ang mas nauna mag-introduce, it’s a matter of efficiency with the safest means possible for the environment at the best results possible. Pyroclave is the best option we have and we should be proud of it because it comes from a Davao inventor,” he added.
Barriga also said that Pyroclave received a year of scrutiny from the SWMB along with the Department of Science and Technology and other agencies.
“Remember it wasn’t just Pyroclave which received deliberation. Rather it was Pyroclave which presented the best product proposal. To question the capability of Pyroclave would be to question all those who deliberated on their product,” he said.
Objections
Delays in the approval of the resolutions authorizing the MOA are rooted in several arguments presented by the city councilors, two of which are:
– that the city has no right to lease a property it does not own; and
– that the local government should not permit ‘exclusivity’ to one private entity.
Once signed, the MOA allows the city government to lease a parcel of land to RAD Solutions, with a monthly payment of P5,000, within the city’s sanitary landfill are in New Carmen, Tugbok District.
This was contested earlier by the legal representative of one Pedro Pascua, owner of the New Carmen land property, saying the site was merely “lent” to the city government, and that the latter has no right to lease.
To this the city legal officer, Al-ag said, released a legal opinion stating that the agreement between Pascua and the city government, then represented by former city mayor incumbent Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, was a ‘usufruct’ agreement.
By legal terms this means the city government has the right of enjoying the property, and to draw from the same all the profit.
“They’ve (Pascua) already withdrawn their contention and agreed to the interpretation of the city legal that it is usufruct. This is not anymore an issue,” Al-ag said.
“The property where the landfill is located is not owned by the city government. We are using it because of the usufruct agreement from the Pascua family for 40 years. The contract expires on year 2038,” he added.
Several City Councilors raised that the local government should not permit ‘exclusivity’ to one private entity.
“Why are we so into having this fast-tracked? We should also hear the proposals of other medical waste facilities. We might be accused of favoring one private entity over another offering the same service,” said Councilor Arnolfo Cabling.
This was raised repeatedly in past sessions to which Al-ag also repeatedly answered: “We are not granting exclusivity. That much has been clarified.”
“We are even encouraging an open market for other medical waste facilities. After all it is up to the hospitals to decide which will be their clients,” he added.
Before the City Council finished discussing the resolution item, the city councilors requested that they be given one more week before voting in order to consult with the Solid Waste Management Board.
Even so, Cabling expressed that he is not in favor of the resolution.
“I am not against it but I am not willing to vote on it,” Cabling said.
