Duterte: NPAs also to benefit from power plant

FOR STABLE SUPPLY President Duterte (center) joins officials of Aboitiz Power and TeaM Energy at the inauguration of the 420-megawatt Pagbilao 3 power plant in Quezon province on Thursday. Seated with Mr. Duterte are (front row, from left) Jera Co. Inc. Senior vice president Toshiro Kodama, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Aboitiz Power chair Erramon Aboitiz; and Marubeni Corp. senior executive officer Yasuo Hirota. —JOAN BONDOC

PAGBILAO, Quezon—Even the communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels here stand to benefit from the operation of the Pagbilao Unit 3 power project in terms of jobs, business opportunities and comfort, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday during the project’s ceremonial inauguration.

“This will provide employment and business opportunities to residents of Quezon, including the NPA, should they decide to just drop their arms and stop fighting,” Mr. Duterte said of Pagbilao 3, which was expected to add 420 megawatts to the existing 735 MW power plant of TeaM Energy Corp. (TEC) and Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) here.

The President said the NPA should thank the proponents of the power plant project “because you can run all your machines or whatever you have, and your lights in the farm.”

He added: “But why don’t you just come down and let us talk. You’re wasting your time.”

Quezon province was known to be a bastion of communist insurgency in the country before successful civil and military campaigns decimated the number of NPA combatants.

For stable Luzon supply

President Duterte said Pagbilao 3, located inside the 200-hectare compound in Isla Grande in Barangay Ibabang Polo facing Tayabas Bay, will result in the “distribution of reliable and affordable electricity (to) complement programs and policies that will lay the foundation (for) a comfortable and productive life for all.”

The coal-fired generating facility and merchant power plant was expected to boost and stabilize energy supply in the Luzon grid, while also generating billions of pesos in taxes for the national and local government.

Erramon Aboitiz, APC chair, said the project was “a testament that Epira (the Electric Power Industry Reform Act) was working.”

No government funds used

He added: “I dare say that it is only the power sector that is building capacity in our country’s infrastructure requirements ahead of actual demands without need of government funds or financial support.”

In his speech, TEC president John Alcordo described the Pagbilao 3 project as “an investment in the country’s future … (as it) will light up homes and industries, give comfort to families, enable productivity and help create employment for Filipinos.”

Alcordo, who is also chair and chief executive officer of TEC, the single largest Japanese investment in the Philippines, said the new power plant was committed to operating at the highest level of environmental performance, similar to Pagbilao units 1 and 2 that generate 735 MW.

“It is a coal-fired facility that will be equipped with a flue-gas desulfurizer and is designed to ensure compliance with all pertinent environmental rules and regulations,” Alcordo said, refuting claims by environment protection groups that the coal-fired power plant would cause pollution in Tayabas Bay.

Joint venture

The new power plant was built at a cost of $976 million through a joint venture between TEC and Aboitiz Power in 2014 under the Pagbilao Energy Corp.

TEC is a joint venture between Japanese firms Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. TEC also operates other generating facilities acquired from the US-based Mirant Corp. in 2007.

Aside from the Pagbilao plant, Quezon province is host to the 1,500 MW coal-fired plant in Mauban town, along the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Another plant proponent, Meralco PowerGen had planned to put up a liquefied natural gas (LNG)-combined cycle power plant in Atimonan town, but converted the project to a coal plant in the absence of a government policy supporting the LNG industry.

President Duterte’s party, which included Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and presidential spokesperson Harry Roque was met on Thursday by TEC-Aboitiz officials, Japanese executives and Quezon province officials led by Gov. David Suarez.