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.

Part 2: Opposing RA 9154 & the Intrusion of the PNOC-EDC Geothermal Project into Mount Kanlaon Natural Park.

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

1. RA 9154, especially its buffer zone provision, is anti-environment and anti-sustainable development because it subverts and emasculates the very essence and principles of environmental protection and sustainable development.

1. 1 Legalizing or allowing the intrusion of the PNOC-EDC geothermal project into 169 has. of the natural park clears a way to further destruction of Mt. Kanlaon's extensive biodiversity and highly fragile ecosystems

The so called "buffer zone" contains the remaining premier old growth forests composed mostly of endangered, century old almaciga trees and other important endemic forest tree species e.g. Bakan, Lauan, Maple, etc.) as well as other rich and endemic flora and fauna. Because of its immensely priceless and impressive eco-systems, the 169 hectare "buffer zone" for the exclusive use of the PNOC-EDC is actually part of the "heart" of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park. Rising in elevation from 1,000 to 1,300 meters above sea level, cutting thru four big rivers, the area is possibly the "richest: part of the mountain in terms of biodiversity and overall ecological and ethical value. No less than the DENR survey report conducted on December 2000 cited it as "the topnotcher in terms of floral and faunal species."

Recently even Maunsell Philippines Inc., commissioned by the PNOC-EDC for a Biodiversity Study, affirmed that said area is an important and critical wildlife habitat. The study cited the first recorded discovery in Negros island of the very rare Rafflesia speciosa, belonging to the world's largest flower family.

Allowing the PNOC-EDC to operate inside the buffer zone will indubitably cause massive and irreversible biodiversity and endemism loss. According to the Maunsell study, thousands of large woody trees will be cleared for the road networks and well pads essential for the geothermal project. One can only imagine the devastation that will happen inside the buffer zone just by looking at the current site of the PNOC-EDC geothermal project in Pataan, Bago City. Before the construction of the PNOC-EDC power plant, that area abounded with important timber trees which are now gone forever. Shall we squander a natural treasure that took thousands of years to establish in exchange for 25 or even 40MW of electric power that is and will never be enough and will only be good, as the PNOC says, for 15 years?

1.2 The conversion of 169 hectares of the Natural park into a buffer or multiple use zone defeats and obliterates time-honored and universally-accepted concepts and principles of protected area establishment and environmental management.

The DENR reports and the Maunsell study confirmed the initial assertions of environmentalists and the PAMB NGOs that the 169-ha. area is of "high biodiversity value" to be secured and protected as an "integral and inalienable part' of the natural park. Under the NIPAS  Act (before RA 9154), this biodeversity was already recognized by the PAMB, which, in its Initial Management Plan, placed these 169 hectares within the Strict Protection Zone (SPZ).

SPZs are defined as "areas with high biodiversity value which shall be closed to all human activity except for scientific studies and/or ceremonial or religious use by indigenous communities." A buffer zone, on the other hand, is "a multiple use zone which is outside the boundary of but adjoining the protected area to provide a social fence to prevent encroachment into the protected area by outsiders" (Sec. 10 (f) of the IRR, NIPAS Act).

In the case of Mt. Kanlaon, the outsiders (i.e PNOC-EDC) not only managed to encroach into the natural park, they were able to claim and fence the area for their exclusive use. Converting what is within the "Strict Protection Zone" into a buffer zone (RA 9154) to benefit a private corporation subverts our environmental management framework, and mangles our environmental and social development policies. RA 9154 conflicts with universal standards in sustainable area planning and natural resource management.

2. RA 9154 carries serious legal infirmities (i.e. substantive and procedural) especially its buffer zone provision and thus, it must be scrapped.

While it purports to establish Mt. Kanlaon as a natural park, RA 9154 carves out 169 has.of the park for geothermal exploitation and development. This provision conflicts with RA 7586 or the NIPAS Law, which categorically disallows resource extractive activities including energy surveys and explorations within natural parks. Mt. Kanlaon, because it was an "initial component" of the national protected area system since 1992, should have already been secured from resource extraction. Unfortunately, because of apparent collusion in various levels of governance, PNOC-EDC was able to circumvent the law for its own vested, selfish interests.

The legal bases cited by the DENR, House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, and the PNOC-EDC for the buffer zone law (RA 9154) rested on the following: the Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECCs) and the endorsement of the PAMB for the PNOC project, Presidential Proclamation 1005, and the opinion of then DENR Sec. Cerilles. Such bases, however, teem with substantive and procedural defects.

2.1 For one, the 1995 ECC issued by the DENR for the PNOC project should have been nullified and voided as it contradicted the NIPAS Law. The ECC maliciously hid the fact that a big portion of the 220 has. it opened to the PNOC was situated inside the natural park, a very serious flaw and omission.

Likewise the ECC did not comply with the requirement of social acceptability. The DENR issued it without the prior endorsement or concurrence of the Mt. Kanlaon PAMB.

Considering the serious implications of the PNOC project in the protected area and given the powers of the PAMB as provided in Sec. I I of the NIPAS Act and Sec. 18 of its IRR, the PAMB should have been consulted before the ECC's issuance.

2.2 Secondly, the March 1997 PAMB endorsement of the PNOC-EDC project should be considered null and void as an ultra vires act of the PAMB. The endorsement was beyond the scope of the powers of the PAMB as the proposed PNOC-EDC project transgressed the NIPAS Law which includes the MKNP as an "initial component." The project is also at odds with the PAMB's Initial Management Plan, which earlier classified the proposed project area as an SPZ (see 1.2).

2.3 Thirdly, Presidential Proclamation 1005, which is a procedural requirement in the establishment of the natural park and which carved out 1,437 has. of the MKNP for the PNOC's geothermal block, clearly violated the NIPAS, a fact cited even by the DENR. This alone already shows that the procedural process leading to the passage of RA 9154 has not been sufficiently met or complied with.

2.4 Fourthly, the recommendation of then DENR Sec. Cerilles (28 June 2000 memo) that the "modification of the boundaries of the natural park " is the only way to justify PNOC-EDCs intrusion into Mt. Kanlaon betrays his bias in favor of PNOC-EDC. Cerilles' recommendation does not speak well of him as the top  environmental guardian and steward of the countr. In fact, Cerilles' opinion was not supported by then DENR Undersecretary of Legal and Legislative Affairs G.M. La Vina, who in his March 1998 memo said that "exploration, development and utilization of energy resources shall not be allowed in a natural park..."

2.5 Fifthly, and importantly, RA 9154s provision modifying Mt. Kanlaon's boundary grossly contravenes the NIPAS Law. According to Sec. 5 (a) of the NIPAS Act, "the basis for recommending for disestablishment or boundary modification of an established protected area shall be warranted by a study prepared for the purpose." In this case, the NIPAS requirement was disregarded as no such "study" to justify a recommendation for disestablishment or boundary modification of the established protected area was made.

2. 6 RA 9154 is bereft of social acceptability as this was not the version endorsed by the Mt. Kanlaon PAMB to Congress What the PAMB approved was HB 9152 which did not modify the park's boundary and did not carry any provision in favor of PNOC. In fact, and sadly, the PAMB, in spite of its important and indispensable role in the formulation and implementation of any policy or law for Mt. Kanlaon, was driven out and made even irrelevant in the final stages of a "railroaded" legislative process. For the PAMB to rectify this serious form of disrespect for its integrity and sense of duty, it must rise up and act accordingly to oppose and reject RA 9154.

2.7 Lastly, RA 9154 is a legal anomaly as it legalizes what should be declared illegal. As already averred several times, RA 9154  is in conflict with the NIPAS Law and it tends to contradict other landmark national and locally significant environmental laws and jurisprudence such as the Philippine Wildlife Protection and Conservation Law, forestry and watershed laws, and of course, our very own Negros Occidental Provincial Environment Code.

3. RA 9154 is basically unjust, oppressive, and immoral.

3.1 The law is basically unjust and oppressive. For one, it surrenders control of an important part of our national patrimony and public commons to a private entity. It gives the PNOC- EDC, now a newly- privatized corporation, special privilege to exploit or control portions of the natural park by granting it exclusive rights. While it does not mention anything about the role or presence of "big business corporations" inside the PAMB, it grants the PNOC-EDC "automatic representation" in the PAMB including even in the Executive Committee, in violation of the equal opportunity, equal rights clause of the Constitution. The law is unjust and oppressive because it carries inequitable provisions. It has onerous conditions for members of civil society (i.e. the NGOs and POs) to be accredited as PAMB members while it does not carry any such conditions for PNOC-EDC. Also there was geographical inequity as there was no representation for Negros Oriental NGOs considering that Mt. Kanlaon covers parts of Negros Oriental province.

Rather than be an instrument of the common good, environmental governance and sustainable development, the law endangers the enduring value and legacy of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park as a significant national patrimony and public commons, and as a critical watershed and wildlife habitat that should be enjoyed, preserved and protected by present and succeeding generations of Negrenses and Filipinos.

For Save Mt. Kanlaon Coalition,

Edwin R. Balajadia

Area Manager, PRRM-Negros

Feb.6,2008

Back to page 1: Historical Background and Status of the PNOC-EDC project

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