BI frees 49 Chinese workers of Davao power plant

DAVAO CITY , Philippines   – The Bureau of Immigration released on Friday 49 foreign workers of a P25-billion coal-fired power plant in this city who were earlier detained for lack of working permits.

The 49 Chinese nationals were among the 56 foreigners working at the 645-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant of Therma South, a subsidiary of the AboitizPower, in Barangay Binugao,  Toril district here.

Two Britons, two Thais, an American and an Australian were among the other foreigners who were found working at the construction site of the power plant.

Therma South said they are working with True North Inc. and Nantong Dragon, the contractors that hired the foreign workers, to secure their permits so they could resume work.

“We will continue working with government agencies to make sure that laws governing foreign workers are complied with,” Wilfredo Rodolfo III of AboitizPower Mindanao said in a statement yesterday.

Rodolfo said Therma South remains committed to complete as scheduled the construction of its 300-MW coal-fired power plant in order to generate power for Mindanao by the first half of 2015.

The construction of the remaining 345-MW power plant is expected to be completed by 2016.

AboitizPower earlier said skills of the foreigners are very important in the construction of the power plant.