Townsfolk wary of displacement by solar power projects

DAGUPAN CITY—Residents and farmers of San Manuel town are opposing proposed solar power plants in their town, fearing the projects would displace them.

A statement from residents of Barangay Sto. Domingo there said they objected to two solar project applications being processed by the Department of Energy. These are a 60-megawatt plant of the Pilipinas Newton Energy Corp. and a 56-MW plant of the Pilipinas Einstein Energy Corp.

Acknowledging that solar power plants are environment-friendly, the residents said these projects would force farmers, many of them tenants, to leave their fields.

“Solar power is safe but it should not be developed at the expense of farmers,” said Erlinda Galistre-Campos, a representative of 59 families tilling 32.5 hectares in Sto. Domingo where one of the proposed plants may rise.

The residents urged President Duterte to approve a moratorium on land-use conversion being pushed by Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano “and to listen to the problems of the farmers, who are oftentimes victims of development programs.”

Inocencio Galitre, a farmer, said his family has been earning a living from the lands being considered for the projects. “We harvest thrice because irrigation is good,” he said, adding that their displacement would mean “they are killing us slowly.”

He said Pilipinas Einstein Energy Corp. had promised them a relocation site but “nice houses could not replace our livelihood as farmers.”

San Manuel, an agricultural town in eastern Pangasinan, hosts the San Roque Multipurpose Dam, which produces as much as 400 MW of electricity.

Galitre said residents and farmers were forced to sell their lands when San Roque Dam was put up. “They were relocated but their lives became miserable. We don’t want to end up like them,” he said. —YOLANDA SOTELO