BAGUIO CITY ? The city government sued a group of residents in Tuba, Benguet, after they diverted the channel of water powering its hydroelectric plant, but the judge hearing the case asked them on Friday to instead settle the dispute out of court.

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. sued the Tadiangan-Nangalisan Hydro Ancestral Landowners Association (TNHALA) in June for grave coercion and for diverting the flow of the river that powers three Baguio-owned hydroelectric plants.

Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan of the Baguio regional trial court said he advised the city government and the association to talk and was concerned that no meeting took place when he met the parties on Friday in court.

Waiting for pay

Roger Sinot, a TNHALA member, said they drafted a position paper which listed the royalty they expect from the profits of the three power plants.

The group has been asserting provisions of the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, which requires developers to secure their permission and to grant them royalties, Sinot said.

Their offer requires the city government to measure the length of the river that runs to the plant turbines. For every foot of the river?s path, residents are asking a P100-royalty, Sinot said.

The city government had proposed to include this royalty scheme in the terms of reference should Baguio privatize its power plants, said lawyer Peter Fianza, city administrator.

Fight for control

The city government reacquired control over the plants recently from the Baguio Water District (BWD), which operated them under a lease arrangement.

The Hydroelectric Power Development Corp. (Hedcor) operated the plants for BWD since the 1980s.

The plants were built by the city government in the 1920s.

Sinot said their royalty claims would cover only the period when the city government took over the plants and would not seek claims on the period before the Ipra was enacted.