Mayor revives PPP to solve city’s woes

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

PREVIOUS administrations in Iloilo City have tried but failed to use the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concept to solve basic problems.

Now, Mayor Jerry Treñas hopes to succeed where his predecessors failed in resolving the sorry state of public markets, slaughterhouse, and garbage disposal.

Treñas said he is once again looking into the possibility of using the PPP for cleaner markets and a feasible waste-to-energy plant.

In an interview on Thursday, Treñas said that he was already in talks with the PPP Center as regards the future projects that may be implemented under the scheme.

For one, Treñas said that the he is now looking into the prospects of implementing the waste-to-energy program in the metro.

“I was told by the PPP Center, I talked to them even before my inauguration. I was told by them that they are helping two cities; Quezon City and Marikina. I also talked with the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR) and they are well-informed about new technologies on waste to energy but we are still looking at it,” he said.

Treñas added that their next priority once they push through with the PPP scheme would be the slaughterhouse and the public markets in the metro.

“Ikaduha namon nga priority ang slaughterhouse and ang markets. Ang markets as long as we come up with an agreement that the ground floor will be utilized by the vendors because I don’t want them to be displaced,” he said.

Aside from this, the mayor also signified his plans to improve the port in Ortiz, still under the PPP scheme.

“May ara kita port ara da sa Ortiz nga ginaagyan kun magkadto kamo sa Guimaras that is very primitive and as a matter of fact part of my pork barrel kita da na ginaubra and ina ginapatun-an ko man if pwede na maupod sa PPP,” he said.

Treñas emphasized that he wants to push for projects under the PPP scheme to save the city government from spending.

“Gusto ta ina i-PPP kay kun may interesado man lang then the city will not have to spend for that,” he said.

This was not the first time that the PPP scheme was introduced by the city government.

In 2015, former mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog also proposed to partner with investors in the implementation of big projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

Among the big-ticket projects under PPP is the redevelopment of public markets where Iloilo Central Market was even subjected to a joint venture revitalization project with SM as endorsed by the Mabilog administration.

While the proposal was intended to solve the dilapidated and sorry state of the Central Market, some stakeholders saw the project as a form of “privatization” and have sparked rallies and confrontations between both parties resulting in the project never realized.

During the time of former mayor Jose Espinosa III, a redevelopment plant for the Iloilo Central Market without the PPP scheme was also introduced but the project only managed to be presented to the stakeholders but was also not realized.