Catanduanes Forum

Business Mirror Agri-Commodities

Written by Danny O. Calleja / Correspondent
MONDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2009 20:08
VIRAC, Catanduanes—Public consultations slated last week on the coal-mining contract approved by the Department of Energy (DOE) covering a vast site within this island-province have been canceled reportedly due to the “heat” generated by the issue.
This developed in the wake of a call by Msgr. Manolo de los Santos, bishop of the diocese here of the Catholic faithful, to participate in hearings and deliberations over the coal operating contract (COC) awarded by the DOE to Monte Oro Resources and Energy Inc. (MOREI) in June.
Public sentiment should be presented so that they are heard and considered in the formulation of government policies concerning the proposed mining operations, de los Santos said.
“It is the people of Catanduanes who should determine their quality of life in days to come. The future of the next generations is right now within our hands,” the bishop said.
The provincial legislative board on Wednesday set a public consultation which, according to its secretary Ursus de Quiroz, was intended to gather inputs from all sectors that would be used as basis for actions the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) would take.
Although this public consultation was not able to push through due to still-unexplained reasons, de Quiroz said the SP will just the same initiate the same activity later.
A combined legal and technical team of the DOE had also scheduled over the week a three-day public dialog in Caramoran, San Andres and Panganiban towns to conduct information, education and communication activities on the proposed mining activities.
The team was to discuss in the dialogs issues arising from the Philippine Coal Contract and Permitting System and the problems related to coal exploration activities in the province, and other concerns affecting coal development and production in the Philippines.
These public dialogs, however, were canceled also for unknown reasons, but de los Santos said it happened as sentiments against coal mining heated up.
On Wednesday SANO Inc., an association of ex-seminarians from the province, spearheaded a six-kilometer protest run around this provincial capital to air their opposition to the proposed mining venture.
The well-attended activity ended up at the Capitol compound, where the public hearing set by the SP was supposed to be held.
MOREI’s mining contract with the DOE covers two blocks—2,000 hectares within the Panganiban area and 5,000 hectares in San Andres and Caramoran. The entire area is capable of yielding 1.2 million metric tons of top-quality coal valued as P9.4 billion.
The Catanduanes coal district covers 14 upland barangays within the three municipalities that are all major abaca- and coconut-producing areas sitting at the heart of the 1,511.5-square-kilometer island-province.
Earlier, de los Santos issued a “Statement of Concern on Mining” that was read in all churches in the province, appealing to local and national leaders to stop all mining operations in the province in the absence of public consultation with affected sectors.
The statement said Catandunganons have the right to know the disastrous effects mining would bring to the island and its people, and that the island cannot shoulder such negative effects.
“We don’t want our island and our people to suffer from such tragedies brought about by irresponsible mining activity,” the bishop stressed, asking the faithful to support and stand by the diocese in the struggle against large-scale mining and the blatant exploitation of the island’s rich natural resources.
A technical working group, the Katandunganon Kontra Mina (KKM), which evaluated the effects of the coal-mining operations, said it will directly cut down local abaca production and adversely affect the province’s reputation as one of the world’s leading producers of fiber.
The vast plantation of tiger grass, another export product of the island, will be obliterated, while its coconut industry and forest cover will also be downgraded with an equivalent of 7,000 hectares, the KKM said.
Rufino Bomansang, a Philippine energy resources expert and vice chairman of MG Mining and Energy Corp., said in a statement that untapped coal resources in the Philippines can make 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts of electricity in at least 25 years to provide cost-effective alternatives to imported oil and coal.
While coal mining, especially open-pit mining and coal combustion, can potentially have very serious impacts on the environment, these concerns can be substantially minimized, if not totally eliminated, with the use of modern technology, Bomansang said.
“I also fully share the vision of environmentalists of a world that is as carbon-free as possible using primarily renewable-energy sources. I am, in fact, an unpaid board chairman of a renewable-energy nongovernment organization and also of a renewable-energy developer,” he added.
The Catanduanes coal is part of the vast energy-source prospects in the Bicol region being eyed by the DOE for exploration. The others are in Batan Island of Rapu-Rapu, Albay; Cataingan, Masbate; and Gubat, Bacon and Prieto Diaz in Sorsogon.
The DOE had already issued a COC to a local mining firm for Gubat allowing the exploration of the 3,000-hectare coal-rich area in the municipality.