Cebu City council junks coal plant plan

THE PROPOSED site of a coal-fired power plant being pushed by Ludo Power Corp. in Barangay Sawang Calero in Cebu City FERDINAND EDRALIN/CEBU DAILY NEWS

CEBU CITY—Applause broke out inside the Cebu City council session hall on Wednesday after the council’s committee on environment announced a decision to reject the proposal to put up a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in a densely populated urban poor village here.

At least 100 residents of Barangay Sawang Calero, all clad in black shirts, gave white roses to councilors who did not object to the committee recommendation.

“Now we can sleep soundly at night,” said Marites Busico, 36 and a mother of five children who are among the Sawang Calero residents who burst into tears upon hearing the committee findings.

The committee on environment cited the lack of social acceptance in denying the request of Ludo Power Corp. for an endorsement of the project.

A council endorsement is prerequisite for an environmental compliance certificate.

Nelson Yuvallos, Ludo public relations manager who was present at Wednesday’s session, declined to issue a statement.

Ludo wants to use its 12.6-hectare property in Sawang Calero, covering about half of the entire barangay’s total land area of 24.8 hectares, for the coal-fired power plant. The property used to host a 10-MW power plant which is no longer operational.

The project would be built in partnership with Team Energy, a consortium in the Philippines composed of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. of Japan, which also operates the 1,218-MW coal-fired power plant in Sual, Pangasinan province.

The Ludo plant planned to use pulverized coal from Indonesia, which the firm said would reduce dust emissions in the village.

Ludo also dangled economic benefits to Barangay Sawang Calero and four other villages.

The villages, Ludo said, would get an income share of 1 centavo per kilowatt hour of electricity that the plant would produce.

But residents and environment groups opposed the project, saying it would violate the Clean Air Act and a local law that declared a moratorium on highly polluting projects.

According to the seven-page committee report, a power plant that surpasses a rated capacity of 30 MW is considered environmentally critical.

Unlike the Sual power plant, which is in an area near the sea, the committee said Ludo’s project site is heavily populated.

The committee said its finding on the project “tells us to err on the side of caution if only to ensure the health and safety of our people and the environment.”

The committee said while the four villages—Sawang Calero, Duljo Fatima, Pahina San Nicolas and Suba Pasil—submitted resolutions endorsing the project, they did not present minutes of meetings of public hearings that had been held on the project.

It said City Ordinance No. 1656, or the Revised Zoning Ordinance of the City of Cebu, bans the establishment of power plants in Sawang Calero, which is classified as a low intensity industrial district.

Power plants are allowed only in medium or high intensity industrial districts.