|
Geothermal energy depends, not just on heat, but also moisture.
After all, the steam that is used to run power plants that generate
electricity is a combination of heat and water.
The heat comes from geological formations
underground that in certain cases create hot springs, geysers and
volcanoes. The water—which seeps underground and combines with
heat to form steam—comes from vegetation aboveground. The thicker
the vegetation the greater is the source of moisture.
This is precisely why “wet” geothermal
energy projects invariably involve forest protection. The steam
fields that produce cheap electricity in Leyte, Bicol, Laguna,
Negros and Maguindanao are surrounded by lush rainforests. Their
operators ensure that the vegetation remains untouched; these areas
are tightly guarded from loggers and slash-and-burn farmers called
kaingeros.
DENR Secretary Joselito Atienza Jr. was
therefore standing on solid environmental—not to mention,
legal—ground when he allowed Energy Development Corporation (EDC)
to enter the buffer zone of the Mt. Kanlaon National Park in Negros
Occidental. EDC is the former geothermal subsidiary of the
state-owned Philippine National Oil Company now controlled by a
private consortium led by the Lopez family.
Atienza, EDC and several others have been sued
by the Save Mt. Kanlaon Coalition before the Bacolod Regional Trial
Court. The class suit seeks to stop the power company from entering
the buffer zone surrounding the park for geothermal exploration.
EDC had sought entry into the buffer zone to tap
more geothermal energy for its Northern Negros Geothermal
Production project, which was granted an environmental compliance
certificate as far back as 1995. By virtue of Republic Act 9154, a
169-hectare buffer zone in the Kanlaon area was set aside for
geothermal energy development. In addition, Presidential
Proclamation 1005 declared a 1,475-hectare area in the national park
as a geothermal block.
EDC has been operating in the area since the
1990s. It commissioned its geothermal plant last year, and has
applied to enter the buffer zone to tap more steam that could supply
more electricity to the power-deficit province of Negros Occidental.
The coalition’s environmental concerns are
understandable, but they obviously have misconceptions about the
operations of geothermal power plants. Without EDC’s steam fields,
the cost of electricity in Negros Occidental—and the rest of the
country, for that matter—would be even more expensive than it
already is.
Katas ng E-VAT
President Arroyo has launched a microfinance
package for the families of jeepney and bus drivers. She said P500
million would be taken from surplus collections of the expanded
value-added tax (E-VAT) on oil, and would be made available to
public transport workers’ kin as start-up capital for small
businesses. The fund will come from the P4-billion excess oil E-VAT
for the second quarter of the year.
Administration spokesmen have tried to couch
this surplus revenue in street patois by calling it Katas ng E-VAT,
literally “Sap of E-VAT.” It is reminiscent of the signs proudly
displayed in some jeepneys, like Katas ng Saudi, declaring how money
to buy the vehicle was raised through the sweat of the owner who has
toiled in the Middle East.
Despite the bid to give it a popular spin, Katas
ng E-VAT could backfire. Even unlettered plebeians are aware that
sap has a tendency to evaporate to climes unknown.
A day before she unveiled the P500-million
microfinance package, Mrs. Arroyo had announced in Masbate that the
government would extend P4 billion to poor Filipinos, including
additional subsidies to offset electric bills and cash grants to
senior citizens. These funds will be in addition to the P4 billion
already released by the government since May to consumers of 100
kilowatt-hours of electricity or less that month, student loans and
scholarships and conversion of gasoline-fed engines of public
utility vehicles—which, for the most part, actually run on
diesel—to compressed natural gas.
No full accounting has thus far been released of
how the first P4-billion package had actually been spent—giving
ammo to Malacañang’s usual critics.
For one, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz
told reporters he was afraid that a big chunk of the Katas ng E-VAT
“would only go to the pockets of corrupt officials” as no
detailed audit of oil-tax expenditures is evidently being done.
He also questioned the administration’s
distribution of cash handouts, which the Catholic prelate said tends
to diminish the recipients’ self-esteem. “It seems [Mrs. Arroyo]
has a very low regard for poor Filipinos because she just wants them
to depend on dole-outs,” Cruz added.
Derelict irrigation
As the Arroyo administration busies itself with
handing out dole, other areas cry out for immediate funding.
Last week the National Irrigation Administration
(NIA) revealed that disused agricultural waterworks have rendered
some 368,000 hectares of farmland unproductive. Acting NIA
Administrator Carlos Salazar reportedly said that those farms have
the potential of producing at least 29.4 million sacks of palay in
just one cropping season.
The derelict waterworks were among the
irrigation systems—built in 1963 during the incumbency of Mrs.
Arroyo’s father, Diosdado Macapagal—that used to service 1.2
million hectares of farmland.
The neglected irrigation network could have
produced enough rice to feed 14.7 million hungry Filipinos.
Restoring the waterworks that used to irrigate 368,000 hectares of
farmland would cost the government P22 billion.
To be sure, the state-owned Development Bank of
the Philippines has set aside a P5-billion package for agricultural
infrastructure, including irrigation systems. These are not
handouts, but loans that must be repaid by local governments.
Malacañang is willing to spend a total of P8
billion—thus far—for handouts, but will lend only P5 billion for
vital farm infrastructure like irrigation. At the very least, the
administration’s order of priorities is suspect.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
|
