Coal-fired power project in Mindanao certified as environment compliant

The $280-million San Ramon Power plant of Alsons Group has secured an Environment Compliance Certificate.

The plant is will add 100 million megawatt power capacity to Mindanao.

In issuing the ECC, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said San Ramon Power Inc. may proceed with the project implementation after securing all the necessary permits from other pertinent government agencies. The ECC was signed by Director Juan Miguel T. Cuna by Authority of DENR Chief Ramon Paje.

Tirso G. Santillan Jr., CEO of San Ramon Power, said the coal-fired power plant in the Zamboanga Ecozone located in sitio San Ramon in Barangay Talisayan, Zamboanga City, has the strong support of the largest labor group in the area, which declared the “Declaration of Support.”

Earlier, Jose J. Suan, president of the Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union  and concurrent Vice President of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, said his organization’s 15,000 members endorsed the plant as labor has been the hardest hit by the daily three-four hour blackouts over the past four months.

Suan said unless the power condition improves, workers’ man-hours and working days will be reduced drastically because manufacturing plants cannot go into full-scale operation, and that most of the workers are employed with the canning, plywood and fishing industries.

In a worse-case scenario, Suan said that plants may have to relocate to other places where there is stable and sufficient power supply, thereby causing a huge unemployment problem in Zamboanga city.

The plant is expected to be completed in three years and will be able to provide the needed power needs of the city, which is pegged at 85 megawatts.

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