Save Toledo City Communities and Tañon Strait from coal

Below are the highlights of an endorsed statement by the residents of Toledo, Cebu, through the Citizens of Coal Communities for Healthy Air and Climate Justice, about their “opposition to the additional coal-fired power plant being planned by Aboitiz Power subsidiary Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI).

One. Since the 1960s, the people of Toledo City have had enough of coal power plants. Now, a total of 8 units of coal plants with an installed capacity of more than 700MW has worsened air quality. caused health issues among residents, and contributed to overall environmental degradation.

Two. Aboitiz plans to construct in 2025 a third unit of coal power plant in Barangay Bato.

The Environmental Management Bureau categorized coal power plants as “environmentally-critical projects.” Coal expansion is also considered as a health sensitive project under the Department of Health-Department of the Interior and Local Government Joint Administrative Order No. 2021-0001 in Section 33 of RA No. 11223 (Universal Health Care Act).

The expansion project should be put on hold to allow the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) review process to unfold with public participation, confirm the main contributors to the respiratory ailments/ cardiovascular/skin diseases suffered by residents, including deaths that family members attributed to the coal plants.

Three. The adverse impact of coal power plants to communities is further affirmed when PMCJ successfully filed a complaint in October 2017 to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO)- the independent accountability mechanism for projects funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group – which “found that many of the alleged adverse impacts of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)-financed coal-fired power plants on communities and the environment were likely to have occurred.”

One of these coal plants funded by IFC through RCBC is in Toledo. This CAO investigation also led to RCBC’s commitment to completely phase out its investments in coal-fired power plants by the year 2031, the only commercial bank in the country to do so.

Four. All Toledo coal power plants’ wastewater discharge poses significant environmental risks to the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS), one of the world’s unique/important centers for marine biodiversity declared as a protected seascape by 1998 Presidential Proclamation No. 1234.

Discharges from Toledo coal power plants which flow into the TSPS contain harmful chemicals/heavy metals that contaminate the water, affecting marine life/the overall health of the ecosystem, including disruption on the natural temperature balance of the TSPS, affecting the breeding/feeding patterns of marine species.

Five. The coal power plant expansion by Aboitiz-TVI is not aligned with the science of climate change/global warming and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 6.

Coal burning during power generation releases large amounts of carbon dioxide/methane/ and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which contravenes the goals under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels. Achieving this target means rapid reduction in the use of fossil fuels such as coal.”

The “demands and calls” of the protesting residents, supporting individuals and organizations:

“1. End coal by immediately stopping all new coal projects and rapidly phasing out existing coal.

2. Compel the DOH to immediately conduct the HIA in all communities affected by coal power plants, from Toledo City, Cebu to other coal expansion areas: Concepcion, Iloilo/ Masinloc, Zambales/and Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.

3. Compel the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) of the TSPS to determine if the coal power expansion project has obtained prior clearance and whether a comprehensive assessment has been conducted on the cumulative impact to the TSPS of all Toledo operating power plants.

4. Compel DENR to update the Philippine air quality standards in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to protect people from harmful impacts of air pollution/ emissions from coal power plants.”