Environmental groups allied with Greenpeace International are calling on Bacolod officials to fast-track support for the climate-friendly cities project by launching the use of electric-power jeepneys.

The Green Renewable Independent Power Producer and Solar Generation Pilipinas said that by doing it, Bacolod City can demonstrate sincerity and integrity in providing cleaner, safer sustainable projects for the people of Negros.

In its press statement yesterday Greenpeace said the launching of the electric jeepneys in Bacolod remains uncertain because they haven't yet received an endorsement from the city government for the memorandum of understanding and a public launch.

Athena Ronquillo Ballesteros, Greenpeace International climate campaigner and founder and chairperson of GRIPP, said Bacolod was supposed to be the main pilot site of the electric jeepneys.

But the E-jeepneys, which Greenpeace says are the first transportation of its kind in Southeast Asia, were launched yesterday in Makati City instead.

"What has taken Bacolod months and months to process, only took Makati less than two weeks to produce," GRIPP coordinator Reina Garcia said.

Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chairperson of the committee on energy, told the DAILY STAR yesterday the Sangguniang Panlungsod had actually passed two resolutions early this year endorsing the climate-friendly cities project.

But the city government eventually failed to draft and approve the memorandum of agreement that would have granted Bacolod the opportunity to pilot test the E-jeepneys.

The launch of the E-jeepneys in Bacolod and Negros Occidental is intended to ensure its technical, commercial, environmental and social feasibility.

The two pilot E-Jeepneys are part of a fleet designed by Solar Electric Company. These will undergo technical and commercial tests for six months in Makati City and eventually in Bacolod and other areas in Negros Occidental.

The project's MOU states that the city will provide a facility that will generate power from the biodegradable wastes from food establishments and wet markets into which the E-jeepneys will be plugged.*NLG

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