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DAVAO
CITY—President Arroyo signed here Tuesday an executive
order (EO) inviting factories and other heavy-power
users to put up their operations around the
cheaper-rated geothermal power plants, including the one
in environmentally sensitive Mt. Apo.
A
councilor here, however, immediately criticized the EO
as “treasonous” for the preferential treatment of
foreigners over the local businesses in accessing the
cheap and abundant geothermal power, while opening up
for environmental abuse the mountain that is being
looked up as one of the last frontiers of nature.
The
still unnumbered EO was signed at the posh “prayer
mountain” enclave of the religious group of Pastor
Apollo Quiboloy in Tamayong, north of downtown Davao,
and mandated the creation of a special economic zones
around the geothermal plants in Tiwi, Albay, Palimpinon,
Negros Occidental, and the Philippine National Oil
Co.-owned Mt. Geothermal Power Plant in Barangay
Ilomavis, Kidapawan City in North Cotabato.
The
creation of the zones would prepare the way for the
eventual entry of factories and other industries that
depend a lot of their operations on reliable and cheap
power.
“I have
signed here an important executive order that would
generate investments around the geothermal plant,”
President Arroyo said in a 15-minute talk show with two
reporters from the government-run National Broadcasting
Network and a Manila newspaper. She said the EO would
direct “all local government units [LGUs] where the
geothermal plants are to put up their own economic
zones.”
“Because
the LGUs around these geothermal plants are receiving
royalties from hosting these plants, but the royalties
can be used only to pay or subsidize their power
consumption,” she said. “But in many cases, LGUs have
fat bank accounts because their households consume less
power and some even subsidize other villages.”
“So why
not subsidize the factories who are complaining of
paying high electric consumption by inviting them to
operate there? They could generate employment for their
residents,” she said.
She said
that the Philippines has so much geothermal power
sources, and Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes said the
country has been rated second high user of geothermal
power after the United States.
“We have
so much geothermal power that even some countries, like
Thailand, have requested us to share our geothermal
experience,” President Arroyo also disclosed as having
talked with the Thailand prime minister on the issue at
the side of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)
conference in Sydney, Australia, last week.
President Arroyo said
Thailand
has planned to develop its own geothermal-power
generation.
President Arroyo was scheduled to go to the Mt. Apo
Geothermal Plant at midmorning Tuesday, but canceled her
trip due to heavy overcast. She proceeded instead to the
mountain retreat compound of the Jesus, the Name Above
Every Name, the religious movement founded by Quiboloy.
Davao City
councilor Peter Lavina doubted, however, if the
declaration of geothermal sites as “special economic
zones” would attract power-intensive industries such as
electronics in southern Mindanao.
“It is
unthinkable for electronic companies to locate in Mt.
Apo, for instance, which is far from any airport or
seaport,” he said in a statement he e-mailed Tuesday. He
said electronic processing in the country is largely for
exports.
Lavina,
chairman of the City Council committee on trade,
commerce and industry, suggested that instead of making
available cheap power to foreign investors, “the
government should instead provide this to local business
and consumers.” He described the move of giving “the
preferential treatment for foreign manufacturers in the
case of cheap geothermal power” as “simply treasonous.”
“Local
business and consumers are being made as second-class
citizens in their own country,” he added.
Lavina
also warned that “attracting power-intensive industries
to geothermal sites may run in conflict with
environmental laws, in the preservation of lumad
culture, and claims on ancestral domain areas.” |
