Groups fight coal plant in public hearing

Opposition groups, including a Korean environmental organization, yesterday questioned the involvement of the Korean Electric Power Corporation in the proposed expansion project of Salcon Power Corporation in Naga during a public hearing held at the provincial capitol legislative building.

Officials of Korean Federation for Environmental Movement flew to Cebu just to join the hearing and give participants a briefing on KEPCO and its allegedly bad track record in Korea.

Youm Hyong Cheol, KFEM president said that KEPCO is a very big government-owned company that has the monopoly of electricity in Korea. He added that the company's history is tainted with violence and struggle while it has neglected the basic people's rights and destroyed the environment.

Despite its bad record, he said that KEPCO continues to grow because it is enjoying privileges from the government.

"It could lure big investment because of low interest and government guarantee. But the government prohibits high profit so they expand outside the country," Youm said.

In the Philippines, particularly in Cebu, the Korean company is entering into a joint venture with Salcon to put up a P15-billion coal-fired power plant in Colon, Naga town.

But during a public hearing yesterday, Cebu Alliance for Renewable Energy questioned why there is no data on KEPCO contained in Salcon's environmental impact assessment for its application for environmental compliance certificate.

Vince Cinches, CARE coordinator said that in the copy of the environmental impact study that they secured from the Environmental Management Bureau, they did not even find the corporate profile of Korean company, nor an accountability statement from it. He said Salcon and KEPCO have no registration from the Securities and Exchange Commission that they would enter into a joint venture for the multi-billion-peso project.

"Based on the presentation of KFEM, we confirmed that they are keeping from public what KEPCO is all about," Cinches said.

Aside from not being transparent about the deal between Salcon and KEPCO, Cinches said that there are lots of inconsistencies in the environmental impact assessment the proponent submitted to EMB like their failure to answer environmental concerns that were raised.

But Reinerio Lastimoso, Salcon's vice president for power generation, was quick to defend his company saying that they have hired experts to do the environmental impact assessment and they have submitted all the requirements including the reactions of the environmental groups.

KEPCO manager Park Sam Wo denied the accusations of KFEM and CARE, saying that it is always their aim to build a healthy environment. If they have committed some lapses on their environmental impact assessment, he said that they will revise their plan to meet all the requirements.

"Our environmental impact assessment was already reviewed to be revised because the DENR wants us to change it. We will accept every person's asking. We will accept suggestions as the proponent of the project," Park said. - Wenna A. Berondo