Court blocks P56-M coal power plant in Zambales

THE Court of Appeals invalidated the Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the Department of Natural Resources (DENR), including two consecutive amendments issued in connection with the petition filed by several activist party-list groups against the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, the Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy), arising from the plans to build a P56-billion 600-megawatt power plant.

In an eight-page Resolution of the Court’s 15th Division, it denied the privilege of the writ of kalikasan and the application for an environmental protection order, and junked the motion for reconsideration filed by SBMA, DENR and the private corporations for lack of merit.