Atimonan parish resists coal project, pushes bid for clean energy

ATIMONAN, Quezon — Church leaders and youth here have pushed anew their bid for a swift and transition to clean energy for the province and the country and in resisting destructive energy from coal.

The call was made on Good Friday during an online devotion session held for Holy Week called Daan ng Krus tungo sa Pagbabagong Ekolohikal (Way of the Cross towards Ecological Conversion) of the Our Lady of Angels Parish here.

In its statement, the Parish called on the residents to wage a campaign for a swift and just transformation to clean and cheap energy and to junk what they claimed as fake solutions to the province’s energy problems. The parish is the site of a 1.2-GW coal power project.

Coal plants have been on the receiving end of a global backlash recently for their contributions to climate change, environmental impacts, increasing costs of construction and maintenance, and high price of electricity. The parish leaders claimed that residents are concerned that the project would exacerbate the suffering of local communities from pollution.

The Parish also called out financial institutions still supporting coal and other destructive projects and urged the public to unite against such financing activities. “Nawa’y magkaisa ang sambayanan sa pagsusulong ng divestment campaign upang ang mga pondo ng aming mga institusyon ay di mapalagak na puhunan sa mga coal-fired power plants, mga kumpanya ng pagmimina at iba pang mapanirang proyekto,” the statement read.

(We hope that the people will unite in pushing the divestment campaign so that the funds of these institutions will not be used to finance coal-fired power plants, mining and other destructive projects.)

“The preservation of our natural world and protection of the right of our people–both these in the present and of generqations to come–to live in a healthy environment is part and parcel of our duty as stewards of Creation,” said Monsignor Noel Villareal of the our Lady of Angels Parish.

“Quezon and many other provinces in the country have been suffering from coal’s poison for far too long. We will not tire in rejecting this dirty energy source and calling out its financial supporters to fully shift instead to investing in clean technologies until ecological conversion truly happens in our country,” Villareal added.

ASU