JC hits Aquino on coal plants

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—President Aquino’s energy policy does not move in tandem with the thrust of local governments due to his insistence on building coal-fired power plants, especially in Zambales, a leader of the Ang Kapatiran party said.

John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes, the Ang Kapatiran standard-bearer who lost to Aquino in the 2010 presidential elections, said the coal plant projects that the President is endorsing in the Subic freeport “is not in the best interest of the local communities, or of the country.”

De los Reyes, a former councilor of Olongapo City, was referring to Aquino’s signing of an agreement with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to build a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant here.

“Their disregard for the community’s sentiments exhibits their ‘what are we in power for’ attitude,” De los Reyes said.

Preference

The plant, the second coal-fired facility lined up in this freeport and which will be built by the Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco), will supply the power needs of the Korean-owned Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. Ltd.–Philippines, the biggest locator in this zone.

De los Reyes assailed the government for giving Hanjin preferential treatment despite the firm’s poor record in workplace safety and treatment of its workers.

“Mr. Aquino [approved] this coal-fired plant even if the result will bring harm to the community … What he should do is show compassion to the workers of Hanjin and residents of Zambales. Hanjin can fend for itself, without his help,” he said.

De los Reyes said former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave Hanjin power subsidies during her term through Executive Order 701. Issued in 2008, EO 701 ordered the National Power Corp. and the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) to provide Hanjin discounted generation and transmission rates of $0.0491 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) within the first six years of its operation, and $0.0600 per kWh from the seventh year until the 10th year in its shipyards in the Subic freeport and in Mindanao.

“Should the prevailing industrial retail rates decrease to a level lower than the discounted rates agreed and granted by Napocor and Transco, the rates shall be correspondingly decreased to match the prevailing rates,” EO 701 said.

De los Reyes said instead of following the footsteps of Arroyo and giving power subsidies, Aquino now wanted to build a coal plant for Hanjin.

“Next thing we know, Hanjin will be selling excess power it generates to the country and profit even more, while endangering the ecosystem of Subic,” he said.

The controversy surrounding another coal-fired power plant project pushed by RP Energy, a consortium of energy firms led by Aboitiz Power, Manila Electric Co. and Taiwan Cogen Corp., has drawn the ire of tourism-related businesses and surrounding communities for its impact on the environment.

De los Reyes said this controversy has been worsened by the coal plant project for Hanjin, he said.

In Baguio City, a top Department of Energy (DoE) official said last week that RP Energy’s power plant project in Subic was necessary to sustain the electricity being distributed through the Luzon grid.

Speaking on the sidelines of the November 24 economic briefing session in the Cordillera, Jesus Tamang, DoE director for the agency’s energy policy and planning bureau, said the production of a Subic plant would augment the output of another power plant that would be commissioned in 2013 in Bataan.

Proposals

Tamang said there have been proposals by neighboring provinces to transfer the Subic coal-fired plant project to their areas.

The DoE, he said, had not anticipated the Kepco project.

Tamang said the memorandum of agreement granted the Korean firm the chance to explore the feasibility of a second plant. “That’s really going to be up [to Kepco] to determine whether Hanjin will need a new plant if the first project goes online,” he said.

Shipyards require a high volume of sustained power to operate, he added.

In response to criticisms to environmentally sensitive projects in the freeport, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority has started a process of consultations.—Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon, with a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon