CALAPAN CITY—An environmental group here has threatened to boycott the scheduled visit on Feb. 27 of Environment Secretary Regina Lopez because of an alleged missing P5-million compensation from a power company to local victims of Typhoon “Nona.”
Lopez is coming over drum up support for her confirmation by the Senate’s Commission on Appointments, and Father Edwin A. Gariguez of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has called on Mindoreños to support his call for the DENR secretary’s confirmation.”
“We need to provide a groundswell of support to DENR Secretary Lopez. Let’s unite to defend our threatened ecology,” Gariguez said.
The Batang Naujan group, however, expressed misgivings on attending the rally supporting Lopez unless a rival group, the Koalisyon Sagip Mindoro, clarifies the whereabouts of the P5-million cash assistance extended by Sta. Clara International Corp.
The grant from SCIC, the mother company of local firm Sta. Clara Power Corp., was meant to compensate some 2,000 islanders, including Mangyan natives, who were victims of “Nona” that battered the province last Dec. 15, 2015.
Sta. Clara Power owns the P1.2-billion, eight-megawatt Catuiran 2 Mini-Hydro Power Project, located on a 3,000-hectare watershed area in Sitio Arangin, Bgy. Malvar, Naujan town.
Ross Delgado, organizer of Batang Naujan, said while they support Lopez, “it’s the disagreement on the lack of transparency and accountability on some groups that led us to the decision on not joining the rally. But still, there’s one more week to go. We still might reconsider.”
“Our group will only join the rally if they will make public the list of beneficiaries of the financial assistance and how much they received; the process on their qualification to receive such financial aid; and the documents both the Koalisyon Sagip Mindoro and the Sta. Clara signed for the granting and release of the P5 million to the typhoon victims,” Delgado said in a statement.
The other group has yet to react to Batang Naujan’s assertions.
SCPC agreed to grant the aid to “Nona” victims after meeting with officials of the Naujan municipal government, led by Mayor Mark N. Marcos, the Oriental Mindoro provincial government headed by Gov. Alfonso V. Umali, Jr., and executives of their mother firm.
The power company was made to pay for the damages it wrought during its excavation works, including dredging and blasting activities, during the construction of its three-kilometer underground tunnel at its Catuiran 2 project site in Bgy. Malvar.
Residents of Malvar and its surrounding villages claimed Sta. Clara’s massive excavation works and blasting activities caused heavy siltation on their farmlands, destroying agricultural crops, farm animals and even their houses.
