Gov backs coal plant amid Church opposition

MALITA, DAVAO DEL SUR—Church opposition to a coal-fired power plant here is drowning in a sea of bureaucratic support for the project.

On Thursday, Claude Bautista, the province’s governor, was added to a growing list of government officials expressing support for the 600-megawatt power plant to be built by San Miguel Corp. Global Power Holdings (SMCGPH).

Bautista said allowing the coal plant to rise here would help solve Mindanao’s power shortage.

SMCGPH held groundbreaking ceremonies for the plant last week. It hopes to operate the plant starting in 2015.

Ramon Ang, SMC president, said the plant would produce an initial 150 MW.

Bautista said he welcomed the plant because it would help generate electricity for areas in Mindanao that had been without power for decades.

In Davao del Sur alone, Bautista said 188 villages were still without electricity because  Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. (Dasureco) could  provide power only to 50 villages.

Godofredo Guya, Dasureco general manager, said the plant could help solve power shortage in Mindanao, although the solution is yet to come  in 2015.

Fr. Joey Ganio Evangelista, head of  Malita Tagakaulo Mission of the Diocese of Digos, said the coal-fired plant project immediately became suspicious when the company rushed everything.

He also said there were reports that a position paper, labeled “consultation” and in favor of the project, was circulated during the release of money to beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program   (4Ps) during the early days of the project proposal.

Ian Villas, a church worker, said the position paper in favor of the coal plant was distributed for signing by 4Ps beneficiaries alongside papers also for signing but related to a cash-for-work program.

“Who would not sign?” Villas said. “If you don’t sign, you will not be given a [cash-for-work] card,” he said.

Mario Morastil, professor at the fisheries department of  Southern Philippines Agribusiness, Marine and  Aquatic School of Technology, said that while coal-plant proponents went to town announcing the benefits of the project, like job-generation, they did not tell the people about the plant’s effects on the environment.

The Kalikasan party-list group said SMC wanted to build the coal plant not because it wanted to supply Mindanao with additional power, but to supply power to its mining operations in Barangay Pinalpalan here.

The group said the dangers of coal combustion and emissions had been well documented in the United States. Orlando Dinoy and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao