Mt. Kanlaon, Its Myths and Wildlife, Painting by Masaste

Opposing RA 9154 & the Intrusion of the PNOC-EDC Geothermal Project into Mount Kanlaon Natural Park.

Position Paper of the Coalition to Save Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park

A. Historical Background & Status of the PNOC- EDC Project (part 1)

B. Main Bases of Our Opposition to RA 9154 and the PNOC-EDC Geothermal Project (part 2)

A. Historical Background & Status of the PNOC- EDC Project

The PNOC-EDC, a newly-privatized corporation, has established a Geothermal Project in Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park (MKNP) , a vital national patrimony and one of the country's critical watersheds. Dubbed as the Northern Negros Geothermal Power Development Project, this project aims to develop and use geothermal resources in the municipality of Murcia and the city of Bago to supply electricity to the province of Negros Occidental,  Panay Island (as claimed by the PNOC-EDC), and to augment energy supply in the Visayas grid by generating 80 MW of power (later reduced to a target of 40MW).

The PNOC-EDC project was issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for exploration by then DENR Secretary Alcala on Dec. 1, 1993 and another ECC for development by then DENR Sec. Victor Ramos on Dec. 5, 1995.

Earlier than the issuance of said ECCs, however, Mt. Kanlaon was already considered a "natural park" and an "initial component" of the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) as provided in RA 7586 or the NIPAS Law. This inclusion was prompted by the historical and ecological significance of Mt. Kanlaon, which as early as Aug. 8, 1934, had approximately 24,557.60 hectares proclaimed a national park. Prior coverage by the NIPAS being the case, the pertinent provisions of said law shall already govern activities within Mt. Kanlaon Park and its immediate areas. The NIPAS Law (Sec. 14) and its subsequent IRR (Sec. 54, DAO 25 Series of 1992) disallows energy exploration and other resource extractive activities in natural parks.

In June 1993, the PNOC-EDC even said on its EIA statement that exploration within the park is "illegal," citing PD 705 and shared the information on the proposed categorization of the MKNP as a natural park under the IPAS program.

On Sept. 26, 1995, two months prior the second ECC for the PNOC- EDC project, the Mt. Kanlaon Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) approved the categorization of the MKNP as a "natural park" under the terms of the NIPAS Act. The Mt. Kanlaon PAMB, which is a site-based policy-making body tasked with administering the protected area, was organized by the DENR in 1994.

On Feb. 29, 1996, the PNOC-EDC, regardless of the legal infirmities of their project, issued a letter to the PAMB to exclude 1,850 has. of the park's total area of 24,557 has. for its geothermal project and classifying it -as a "buffer or a special use zone". Unfortunately, instead of keeping firm with the safeguards provided by the NIPAS Law and rejecting outright the PNOC-EDC proposal, top-level officials of the DENR accommodated it, and threw it to the PAMB to resolve the issue. On March 11, 1997, the Mt. Kanlaon PAMB approved the PNOC-EDC proposal to enter the park with conditions despite pending issues. It is striking to note, however, that only I I of the 41 members of the PAMB voted to approve the PNOC proposal. Such approval by the PAMB triggered a spate of protests from NGOs, environmentalist groups, churches and social movements of the province.

On May 8, 1997, then President Ramos issued Proclamation No. 1005 declaring MKNP as part of the NIPAS under the category of a natural park. Proc. 1005 also provides that 1,437 has. of the park shall be allocated and devoted to geothermal exploration, development, and utilization, and which area shall be managed as a buffer, special use or any other management zone as may be determined by the DENR Secretary. Proclamation 1005 was under fire from NGOs and environmental groups as it violated the NIPAS law because it was worded in such a way that the geothermal block is within the boundaries of the natural park. Despite its unconstitutional nature, Proclamation 1005 remains uncorrected up to now.

In 1998, the PAMB drafted a bill which will declare Mt. Kanlaon as a natural park, and endorsed it in 1999 to Congress. There was no provision whatsoever in the bill on the PNOC-EDC project as well as its proposed buffer zone. In fact, the Draft Bill Committee of the PAMB rejected the proposal of the PNOC-EDC that its geothermal block within the park be considered a "buffer zone". Congressman Carlos Cojuangco, (Neg. Occ., 4th District), authored the House version (HB 9152) while Sen. Robert Jaworski sponsored the Senate measure (SB 2062). Again it is important to note that such bills, which were endorsed by the PAMB and other local and regional policy bodies (like the Bacolod City Council and the Regional Development Council, etc.) did not carry anything on the PNOC-EDC.

On Aug. 9, 2000, the House Committee on the Environmental and Natural Resources approved HB 9152 without considering the PNOC proposal. Encourage by this crucial policy gain, NGO members of the PAMB pressed to overhaul the PAMB's 1997 endorsement. On Aug. 18, 2000, the PAMB, with 17 members voting in favor, approved a resolution for the review of the 1995 ECC granted to PNOC-EDC and the PAMB's earlier endorsement of the project.

Such small victories proved short-lived as the PNOC-EDC, then a big government controlled corporation, harnessed its big guns (i.e, powerful connections within the executive and legislative branches of government as well as its massive resources) and mounted an aggressive policy lobby to lock the outcome in its favor. The NGOs and the PAMB were startled when on Dec. 8, 2000; the House Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources approved a "substitute version" of HB 9152 in a meeting in Hda. Balbina (the residence of Cong. Cojuangco), municipality of Pontevedra, Neg.Occ.

HB 12880, the substitute version, allows the intrusion of the PNOC geothermal project within the MKNP and carves out 169 hectares of the natural park as buffer zone. This bill was obviously based on then DENR Sec. Cerilles' 28 June 2000 memo,  which stated that the modification ' of the boundaries of the natural park and the establishment of the geothermal block as buffer zone appears to be the only legal avenue for the PAMB and DENR to implement the PAMB's earlier endorsement of the PNOC-EDC project.

In response to this discrepancy, on Dec. 20, 2000, majority of the members of the PAMB's Advocacy Committee approved a resolution opposing the substitute version, yet to no avail. On June 10, 2001, Congress ratified the "substitute version" which now creates a 169-hectare area buffer zone specifically for the PNOC- EDC project. On Aug. 11, 2001, amid heightened protests, the "oppressive" Mt. Kanlaon bill, unsigned by President Gloria Arroyo, lapsed into law.

The passage of RA 9154 dealt a big setback to the cause of environmentalism and sustainable development in Negros and the Philippines. Rather being hailed as a landmark, an environmental measure of great significance considering that it was the first ever natural park law after the enactment of the NIPAS Law in 1992, it was greeted with dismay, indignation and widespread protests. Newly-installed Bishop Vicente Navarra of the Bacolod Diocese issued a pastoral letter against the law and the PNOC-EDC project. In late August, 2001, a massive protest rally at the Bacolod City Plaza  was joined by about 10,000 people from the churches, schools, environmentalist groups, and NGOs. The protests only subsided when then PNOC-EDC chair Sergio Apostol issued a statement in early Sept. 2001 that PNOC-EDC will no longer enter the buffer zone. Apostol said that based on their technical assessment they could already get the targeted MW outside the buffer zone.

Now, more than six years after PNOC-EDC made that promise, it is again pushing to enter the natural park through the buffer-zone provision of RA 9154. So far the PNOC-EDC, after years of drilling and millions of pesos in operation costs and despite its earlier technical appraisals, had only generated a measly 9MW of power and said that it could only reach its targeted MW by tapping areas within the buffer zone. Never mind the deplorable fact that so much time and effort and billions of pesos of public funds have already been expended, not to mention the wide swathe of environmental destruction, total alteration of the physical landscape, and irreversible loss of biodiversity that the project has wrought in Mt. Kanlaon's environs.

The scenario presently unfolding brings more alarm and apprehension with the recent "privatization' of PNOC-EDC, 60% of which is now owned by a private multinational entity. While previously the PNOC-EDC entered the MKNP clothed with the veil of public cover as a government corporation, therefore supposedly held in check through public scrutiny, at this time, PNOC-EDC can be more secretive, accountable only to itself. The buffer zone provision which gives PNOC-EDC a foothold in the natural park; thus, creates a very dangerous precedent that other big private corporations interested in profit maximization can use to to extract and exploit with impunity the energy and mineral resources of Mt. Kanlaon.

Indeed, for all its posturings then as a responsible agent of government, the PNOC-EDC in its Kanlaon adventure acted more as a corporate bully, seemingly inured and deaf to citizens' pleas to spare the natural park. It has been apparently immune to calls of accountability as it continues to ride rough shod over environmental laws and put into harm's way our national patrimony in its pursuit of geothermal hegemony.

Next page: The bases of our opposition

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