GREEN ALERT QUESTIONS POLITICAL WILL OF GUV & SP

 Bacolod City  -        Green Alert Negros questions the double standard policy and program of the Provincial Government and its Sanggunian Panlalawigan in relation to environmental protection and their response to the energy crisis.

This after the Province and its SP endorsed the PNOC-EDC geothermal project inside Mt. Kanlaon and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Alto Power Management Corp for a study of a hydro electric power to determine its technical and economic feasibility in Bago River which can produce 75 megawatts.  

Green Alert also questions the political will and principle of the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in protecting the Northern Negros Natural Park on illegal structures and played as heroes in declaring to protect it but opened Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park for destruction to a mammoth private company like PNOC-EDC.

“This month, the Province will be celebrating the Provincial Environment Week with the theme “Conserve Water: Every Drop Counts”. But it seems that the Provincial Government and the SP is not clear on its program and priorities in relation to environmental protection. While the province is pushing for Organic Agriculture, it allowed a private corporation like PNOC-EDC to clear our forests and further put our watershed in a more critical state that can affect the implementation of organic agriculture”. Green Alert stressed.

We also question the inconsistent policies of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on our environment. While they made a resolution protecting the Northern Negros Natural Park from illegal structures and push for its protection but concurred to endorse the entry of the PNOC-EDC inside the buffer zone of Mt. Kanlaon for geothermal project.” Green Alert added.

The group finds the decisions of the Province to be dubious when in fact the Provincial Government has been finalizing plans for the irrigation highway with Alto Power Management Corp. and the SP is very much aware of this but still allowed PNOC-EDC to explore inside the buffer zone of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park amidst the position of environmentalist and Bishop Vicente Navarra that our forest cover is depleted, our watershed in crisis and there is no power shortage.

“It is inconsistent for the Provincial Government and the SP to protect the environment when in fact they played a big role to unprotect it. We urge Governor Isidro Zayco and the SP to be consistent with their programs and policies. The 1^st law of ecology states that “Everything is related to everything else”. They have to remember this and always apply this principle in their decision making”. Green Alert stressed.

For Green Alert Negros

 (sgd)

Mark Cervantes

Coordinator