Proponent won’t attend acceptability sessions

The proponent of a 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in this free port has backed out of consultations aimed at gauging the project’s acceptability, a Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) official said.

Philip Camara, SBMA director, said representatives of RP Energy [the corporate vehicle of energy firms Aboitiz Power, Manila Electric Co. and Taiwan Cogen Corp.] will no longer attend the public consultation for the project.

“I was told that RP Energy believes that they are not bound by the results of the social acceptability process. This was the advice of their lawyer. They claim that since they already have a lease agreement with SBMA, then they should no longer be part of this,” said Camara.

He said he was informed of this development on Tuesday night by SBMA Chair and Administrator Roberto Garcia. SBMA initiated the social acceptability process in response to the controversy generated by the project.

Camara, who presented the agency’s position to local governments and free port investors on Wednesday, said RP Energy’s contract approved by the previous SBMA board was “lopsided and disadvantageous to the government.”

He said SBMA would only earn about P1 million from RP Energy in the form of lease for a 40-hectare land.

He said if one rented a hotel room inside the free port for a year, “that would cost more than what RP Energy will pay the SBMA under this contract.”

He said the absence of RP Energy in the consultation process won’t be a concern if an earlier agreement that guaranteed environment protection and cheaper electricity not only for the free port but Olongapo and Zambales had been in effect.

“RP Energy has, up to now, no plans or guarantees to address those issues,” he said.