Greenpeace in the Philippines

“We don’t want your coal mine and power plant” is the unanimous
pronouncement of Isabela community leaders and Greenpeace activists as
they trooped to the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration
Corporation office to convey the province’s rejection of their proposed
integrated coal mining and mine-mouth power plant project.

Isabela community leaders and Greenpeace activists told the PNOC-EC
Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation today, trooping
to the state-owned company’s offices to express the province’s complete
rejection of a proposed integrated coal mining and mine-mouth power
plant project. Voicing the firm anti-coal stance of residents of the
municipalities of Naguilian and Benito Soliven, and the city of
Cauayan, in Isabela, the community leaders delivered a petition signed
by 15,000 concerned Isabela citizens, resolutions from Naguillan and
Benito Soliven municipal councils, and a letter from the Cauayan city
council, all strongly opposing the proposed coal project.

To
drive their message home, representatives from Isabela and volunteers
from Greenpeace, some of whom wore protective coveralls and gas masks,
blocked the gates of the PNOC compound with signs displaying skulls,
symbolizing how coal plants are a menace to the environment and to
human health.

“We absolutely reject PNOC’s proposed mine-mouth
coal-plant because it will threaten the lives of the people in the
surrounding communities,” said Isabela Anti-Coal Mine Mouth Alliance
representative Fr. Tony Ancieta, “This coal project will pollute the
air and water and ruin crops, devastating health and livelihoods.”

Coal
is the dirtiest fossil fuel. The acute and long-term environmental and
social costs associated with coal usage make it an expensive and
unacceptable burden to its host communities. The coal industry moreover
is a major contributor to climate change, the greatest threat to our
world today. The proposed project would be the Philippine’s first
coal-fired power plant located on a mine site. Under the original
proposal, the project encompasses an area of 20,000 hectares,
straddling the boundaries of Naguilian, Benito Soliven, and Cauayan,
comprising more than 8,000 households who will be at risk from the
mining and plant operations.

The PNOC has been persistently
seeking approval from local communities for an Environmental Compliance
Certificate (ECC) endorsement as a first step toward the implementation
of the mine-mouth coal plant project. In 2001, the municipal council of
Naguilian filed a resolution rejecting the proposed coal project. A
similar resolution was filed in 2005 by its neighboring municipality
Benito Soliven.

But despite the obvious lack of support from
local communities, the PNOC continued to actively push for the
project’s approval. With a reworked proposal reducing the mine mouth
coal plant’s area to 9,000 hectares, the PNOC once again pursued
endorsement, this time from Cauayan’s city council which unanimously
rejected the request last June 16. Local leaders, however, feel that
the proposal will be revived regardless of the rejection of all three
towns.

“No means no,” said Cauayan City Councilor Dr. Francisco
Mallillin, “The PNOC’s mine mouth power plant has already been rejected
by three towns. Clearly the project should be shelved. PNOC should not
revive the proposal in any form, now or in the future.”

“The
opposition to the proposed mine mouth coal plant in Isabela is a
testament to the growing movement against coal throughout the country,”
concluded Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner Jasper Inventor,
“There is no future with coal. The government therefore should stop the
construction and expansion of more coal plants in the country and
initiate a massive shift to clean, renewable energy with a clear target
of 10% of our total energy needs generated from sun, wind, and modern
biomass by the year 2010.”

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http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/press/releases/isabela-rejects-proposed-pnoc