Court issues Tepo vs coal plant project in Palawan

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—The controversial coal-fired power facility that a firm plans to put up in mainland Palawan province ran into yet another legal stumbling block.

The Palawan Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Friday issued a temporary environmental protection order (Tepo) against the coal power plant being planned by DMCI Powers Inc.

The Tepo was issued by RTC Executive Judge Joselyn Dilig based on a petition filed by a group of residents from the southern town of Aborlan, the proposed site of the power plant.

On Thursday, the new set of village officials in Barangay San Juan, Aborlan, passed a resolution revoking or withdrawing an endorsement issued by the previous village council, which had passed a resolution in favor of the project before ending its term of office prior to the village elections held on Oct. 28.

“The Tepo and the withdrawal of Barangay San Juan is a big boost to our case against the coal plant,” said Rafael Ortega Jr., leader of a group opposing the coal plant and brother of murdered Palawan journalist Gerry Ortega.

Ortega said the opposition of the barangay council of San Juan and the Tepo would stop the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) from granting a strategic environmental plan (SEP) permit to DMCI.

The SEP permit, mandated by a special law for Palawan, is required for any project in the province that has an impact on the environment. It is issued only by the PCSD and is a precondition to the granting of an environmental compliance certificate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Gov. Jose Chavez Alvarez has openly campaigned for the DMCI project after Aborlan residents formed into an anticoal lobby group and started holding rallies in Aborlan and the capital. Alvarez also chairs the PCSD.

Opposition to the power facility continued after DMCI was forced to withdraw early this year from the town of Narra, also in southern Palawan and adjacent to Aborlan, after the municipal government refused to grant the project a permit.

Alvarez has brushed aside opposition to the plant, claiming anticoal groups “represented only five percent” or a small minority of the local population.

In a recent interview over local radio station RMN Palawan, Alvarez also dismissed claims the plant would pose health risks to the residents of Aborlan, adding that the coal-fired facility would be converted to a biomass-powered generating plant using bamboo as fuel.

In a separate interview with a ranking DMCI official through text message, however, the company said the plant would not run on biomass entirely.