Post-MassKara: Items that rock Region 6

Thanks God, the almost month-long MassKara is over, when the eyes of Negrenses were concentrated on the biggest festival hereabouts in Western Visayas. But now, we have to notice other equally important events in Western Visayas in terms of their impact on the lives of people.

For example, tomorrow the popular TV program of Iloilo City will focus on two governors – Antique’s Sally Zaldivar-Perez, who chairs the Regional Development Council, and Guimaras’ Felipe Hilan Nava. The latter is a doctor and he may have a lot of interesting things to discuss about the proposed coal-powered plant to be put up in Iloilo City.

The two were among the five Region 6 governors who have openly voiced their plea to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to order DENR Secretary Lito Atienza to withdraw the ECC granted to Global Power Corp. to put up the plant in La Paz district.

The governors pointed out that they were not opposed to the coal-powered plant per se, but only objected to the site which is in an urban center and could do damage to the health of local residents. And as they earlier had pointed out, those included their constituents who are residing in Iloilo City, either as students or workers.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas charged that the five governors had violated the dictum of local autonomy by interfering in a purely local matter. And he has received the backing of the entire city council as well as almost all the barangay officials of the city.

But Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo had also thrown his support behind the stand of the five governors, including Negros Occidental’s Isidro Zayco, Capiz’s Victor Tanco Jr., and Aklan’s Catalino Marquez.

I will be in Iloilo that time. So maybe, I could listen in on Nava, the doctor, come up with his medical observations on the dangers of a coal-powered plant operating in an urban center.

Incidentally, Archbishop Lagdameo yesterday came out also in support of the use of renewable energy to solve the power deficiency in Negros Occidental. The chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said the Energy Development Corp. has chosen a better, practical and environment-friendly means of producing power through its geothermal project at the Mt. Kanlaon National Park buffer zone.

In a letter to Oscar Lopez, chairman of EDC, according to the EDC corporate communication officer, admitted having signed a petition to save Mt. Kanlaon. But he thought that he was signing against the presence of a coal-powered plant in the area, was how Lagdameo explained his earlier action.

The archbishop said he hopes the other stakeholders would receive the same information as he had on the project that would benefit the people of northern Negros and hopefully beyond.

The EDC sent Lagdameo pertinent data on the project that he fully understood the issues, the EDC press statement said.

“We must take advantage of the gifts of nature which offer healthier and less destructive options. If out of necessity, trees are to be cut and the environment has to be restructured, it should be for a greater reason in accordance with approved laws and in the spirit of true stewardship of creation for the benefit of all,” Lagdameo said.

The EDC project has been opposed by the Save Mt. Kanlaon Movement, which has filed a petition for TRO with the Bacolod RTC.

Lagdameo said he had been informed the EDC is committed to reforest 400 hectares of the buffer zone of the national park in the next five years to replace trees that will be affected by the project.

The EDC has gotten a permit to cut 4,213 trees. It expects to save more than a thousand of the trees it had applied to cut. It has also saved centuries-old trees by the simple formula of building the road into the MKNP buffer zone. Incidentally, only 12.5 hectares of the 165 hectares will be involved in the geothermal dig.

Lagdameo’s endorsement of the project puts a crimp on the position held by Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra who has sided with the environmentalists even if the stakeholders in the area have vehemently denounced their opposition.

The latest caper by the environmentalists was the attempt to solicit the signatures of students who attended a recent forum on the issue. The students resented the fact that their signatures were solicited despite the pronouncement of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) that the affair was strictly non-partisan.

One even denounced a solicitor when she inquired if she was a scholar of the EDC or PNOC.