“Ang’s vision stretches from the streets clogged with trash to the rivers that overflow every rainy season“
SAN Miguel Corporation Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang has never been one to shy away from big problems.
Whether it’s building the country’s largest airport, expanding expressways, or cleaning up the Pasig River, he approaches challenges with an engineer’s pragmatism and a businessman’s resolve.
His latest challenge, however, is not about concrete and steel—it’s about garbage.
A mechanical engineer but foremost a nation builder at heart, Ang is thinking big again—and this time, his vision stretches from the streets clogged with trash to the rivers that overflow every rainy season.
In last week’s meeting with MMDA Chairman Don Artes and Metro Manila mayors, the SMC chairman threw a bold challenge to Metro Manila’s chief executives: “Let’s clean up your garbage, turn it into energy, and in the process, help solve Metro Manila’s perennial flooding.”
It’s a sweeping proposal with a simple premise: if we manage the 10,000-plus tons of trash Metro Manila produces daily—keeping it out of esteros, waterways, and clogged drainage systems—we do not only generate electricity through a waste-to-energy facility, but also give our flood control systems a fighting chance.
Fewer blocked canals mean faster drainage during storms, which translates to fewer streets submerged after a few hours of heavy rain.
But Ang’s challenge isn’t just a call for environmental responsibility; it’s a political test.
Garbage is not merely waste—it’s a billion-peso industry.
Waste collection contracts, landfill operations, and tipping fees have long been fertile ground for overpricing, ghost trips, and under-the-table arrangements.
Over the years, it has become one of the most lucrative—and most corruption-prone—local government operations.
A functioning waste-to-energy system threatens to disrupt that.
Done right, it would slash landfill use, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and produce renewable power.
More importantly, it would strip away the opportunities for rent-seeking embedded in the current waste collection system.
And that is where the real challenge lies: breaking the entrenched political and business relationships that profit from inefficiency and decay.
So, will the Metro Manila mayors take the bait?
Will they have the courage to dismantle these cozy arrangements in favor of cleaner waterways, less flooding, and renewable energy generation?
Or will they play along for the cameras, issue a press release about “public-private cooperation,” and quietly file the proposal in the archives of lost opportunities?
Ang has shown what’s possible—his work in cleaning up the Pasig River, rehabilitating Tullahan River, and investing in massive flood-mitigation projects prove that solutions exist when there’s willpower and funding.
Last week, RSA did the unthinkable by pledging to help solve Metro Manila’s chronic flooding “at no cost to the people and no cost to the government.”
“Ako po San Miguel, Ramon Ang, nagvo-volunteer ako ngayon. Ako na ang tutulong sa buong Metro Manila ma-solve ang baha at no cost to the people at no cost to the government,” Ang declared.
He vowed to lead drainage construction, clearing operations, and relocation housing for residents displaced from riverside structures.
He added he’d provide them with housing so they won’t feel they are being evicted without due consideration.
Ang also stressed that waste and informal structures clogging waterways must be removed to restore water flow.
“We will do the cleaning, but without your authorization, we can’t proceed,” he told local officials.
Now, he’s offering the same decisive action for the metro’s garbage as an important component to solve the perennial flood woes.
Ang has placed the ball squarely in their court.
The garbage problem is solvable—with the right technology, infrastructure, and transparency.
What’s harder to clean up is the political garbage that surrounds it.
In the end, this is not just about waste management.
It’s a test of political will, a measure of whether local leaders will put the public good above private gain.
The choice before our local leaders is stark. They can treat garbage and flooding as perpetual crises to be “managed” every election cycle—or as solvable problems that, once fixed, might deprive certain quarters of a dependable cash cow.
In the business world, Ramon Ang has made a career out of turning problems into opportunities.
The question now is whether Metro Manila’s mayors can do the same—or whether they’ll just let the city keep drowning, in water and in waste.
(The author is president/chief executive officer of Media Touchstone Ventures, Inc. and president/executive director of the Million Trees Foundation Inc., a non-government outfit advocating tree-planting and environmental protection.)
