Green Alert Negros yesterday held a prayer vigil in front of the provincial Capitol in Bacolod City to remember the trees that were cut by the Energy Development Corp. to give way for their geothermal exploration inside the 12.4 hectares of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park last year,  Mark Cervantes of GAN said in a press release.

GAN also held the prayer vigil to condemn the 8th year anniversary of the passage of Republic Act 9154 or the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park Act of 2001 which allowed EDC to slice 169 hectares inside MKNP through the “buffer zone”, the press release said.

“We condemn the passage of RA 9154 eight years ago which EDC reneged as to its passage to accommodate their plan to push for a geothermal expansion inside the natural park. This act is also an insult to the Negrense because it violated conservation laws that is protecting MKNP prior to its passage”, Raquel de los Santos of GAN also said in the press release.

MKNP was declared as a national park and one of the top 10 sites for conservation because of its biodiversity significance. Several flora and fauna inside MKNP are declared endemic and most are not yet elevated into species level, Cervantes said.

GAN is reminding Negrenses that in 1995 the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan released a loan amounting to ¥14,460,000 million to then Philippine National Oil Corp.-Energy Development Corp. for their Northern Negros Geothermal Project, which includes drilling of production and reinjection wells, construction of Fluid Collection and Disposal System and a 40MW geothermal power plant including its consulting services, Cervantes said in the press release.

By that time, PNOC-EDC was a quasi government agency therefore the Filipino people will be paying for the said loan, he said.

PNOC-EDC never generated 40MW as agreed in the OECF contract and the Filipino people were burdened to pay for the said load, the press release added.*

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