Unmentioned

The sanitary landfill operated by Metro Clark in Capas, Tarlac will likely be shut down after all. This will have repercussions on waste disposal throughout Central Luzon. But government claims there is no legal basis for Metro Clark to claim an “automatic” 25-year extension of its contract.

Clark Development Corporation (CDC) and its parent agency Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) decided to reuse the land currently occupied by the Metro Clark operation. That decision appears firm.

Metro Clark has gone to court to force the CDC to grant it a 25-year contract extension on the grounds that the project is a joint venture with a foreign partner. But there is no word, phrase, sentence or paragraph in the existing contract that says the project is extendable by another 25 years – much less, automatically extendable for that period.

Perhaps that should have been clearly worded into the contract. But it was not. It might have been a serious oversight on the part of the operators of the landfill, for which they should blame their lawyers.

For months, the CDC has been advising Metro Clark that the landfill contract will not be renewed. This is to signal the operators of the landfill that they have only so much time to wind down the operation and advise their clients who are mainly local governments in the area. CDC is the only agency that has the power to extend or terminate the contract.

The CDC’s advisory of its intent to use the land for modernizing New Clark City should have allowed enough time for clients of the landfill to make other plans for their waste and for other potential investors in sanitary waste disposal to start their respective projects.

Metro Clark, however, has been sending out contrary signals. It has been entering into new contracts with local governments that extend beyond the contract life of its landfill. They seemed confident in winning an extension even if there was no legal basis for doing so. All this guarantees is that there would be chaos when the existing contract expires and other alternative trash disposal sites are unready.

Metro Clark appears to have assumed it had an entitlement that was not there to begin with. As a