Letter to the Editor - Reaction to CARE's statement

This refers to the statement of Mr. Vince Cinches in your paper dated 23 November 2005. First of all, I'm commending the environmentalists for fighting to safeguard our Mother Nature against abuses. There's no debate to say that we only have one Earth to live and if we don't take good care of it, I believe our descendants won't see the beauty of it.

Nevertheless, I don't agree entirely with Mr. Cinches' statement on what happened in Masinloc Coal-Fired Power Plant. I don't know who is telling the truth but my eyes don't deceive me. I saw the news item on tv the day the news broke out. The news report was very explicit in the details of the whole event. It showed that the Greenpeace people approached the plant using speedboats, docking near the plant, climbing the plant building, the injuries suffered by the protesters, and interviews of both sides.

One of the beauties of a democratic country, such as ours, is the respect of our right to protest. The Constitution enshrined this very right. But, nowhere in any laws of our land says that anybody is allowed to trespass a private property, an operational power plant at such, in order to manifest a protest, much more, threaten its continued operation thereby endangering the power supply of Luzon.

I have the honor of listening to Mr. Cinches in a number of fora I attended and I salute his determination to the cause. His protest and opposition to coal-fired power plant are very commendable. But, alas, in all of these fora, seminars, and meetings I never heard Mr. Cinches offer any alternatives if we forego the construction of coal-fired power plants. His organization, the Cebu Alliance for Renewable Energy, is a misnomer. Unless, I heard from the mouth of Mr. Cinches and his cohorts that they can offer power plants using renewable energy sources that would address our power supply needs now and in the future, then and only then will I not only commend him more but will offer myself to be a part of their group.

Johnny Domingo
Sambag II, Cebu City