NV board wants Casecnan execs deported

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — The provincial board is calling for the deportation of all foreign nationals working for California Energy (Cal-Energy), the US company operating the Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP) in Alfonso Castañeda town here.

Board member Edu Balgos said the resolution calling on the Bureau of Immigration to expel foreign CMIPP officials will be formally passed in today’s special session.

Gov. Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma said the provincial treasurer’s office delivered last Friday an "ultimatum letter" to Cal-Energy to settle its long-overdue real property taxes with the province.

"Should you fail to settle your tax obligations within 15 days from receipt hereof, we would resort to... either administrative or judicial remedy to enforce collection," stated the two-page "final demand letter."

The letter bore the signatures of Cuaresma, provincial treasurer Perfecto Martinez, Alfonso Castañeda Mayor Alfredo Castillo Jr. and municipal treasurer Corazon Sumawang.

Cuaresma said Cal-Energy, which operates the CMIPP under a 25-year build-operate-transfer deal, must settle its P229-million real property tax arrears from 2001, when the CMIPP started its operations, to 2004.

If Cal-Energy fails to do so, she said the province would be compelled to issue either a "foreclosure order" or a "warrant of levy," which means the CMIPP facilities and properties would be placed on a public auction.

Balgos said the provincial board’s move to deport Cal-Energy’s foreign executives was prompted by the company’s continuing failure to settle its financial obligations and its "apparent mockery of our moral and constitutional rights to collect what is due us."

"This is no longer about money but the preservation of our sovereign rights to impose what is moral and legal," he said. 

"This is also for the more than 300,000 inhabitants of the province, especially the Bugkalot communities, who, until now, are still waiting for just remuneration for the utilization of their natural resources and indigenous lands by these profiting foreign nationals," he added.

Vice Gov. Jose Gambito said 90 percent, if not all, of the 13 provincial board members would approve the resolution.

Cal-Energy has insisted that it is the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) which should pay the taxes, as stipulated in their memorandum of agreement.

However, engineer Vicente Galvez, NIA director for Cagayan Valley, said the MOA is not clear as to whether the NIA should shoulder the real property taxes.

Alfonso Castañeda, a five-hour drive from this capital city, is located at the boundary of Nueva Ecija, Aurora and Quirino. It is nestled on the southeastern fringe of the Sierra Madre-Caraballo mountains.