Jaime Augusto Zobel Ayala, the top honcho of the Ayala Group of Companies, confirmed Friday noon that his company will join the consortium which will establish the P1.2 billion Cantakoy Falls Hyrdro Power Plant in Danao town. This was revealed yesterday by Rep. Erico B. Aumentado who conferred with Ayala and his party in the residence of former NPC and TRANSCO president Asisclo Gonzaga, Sta. Clara Power Corporation chief executive officer (CEO), yesterday in Danao. Jaza, as Mr. Ayala is fondly called, told the solon that his company will join the Group of Sta. Clara Power Corporation and its partners in funding the Cantakoy Hydro Electric Plant which will generate 8 megawatts of energy according to the feasibility study prepared by Engr. Gonzaga's group.

Earlier on, the group of Ayala, Nick Linao, chairman of the Sta. Clara International group, and Engr. Gonzaga conducted an on-site visit to the Cantakoy Falls, the crown jewel of Inabanga River, in historic Danao town. Over lunch, Ayala discussed with the group the strong interest of the Ayala conglomerate to help Bohol's economic development through its initial investment on power generation. It may expand to some areas of development of the province as he visited later the Danao Extreme Adventure Tourism Park and the Dagohoy Monument before returning to Tagbilaran for his flight back to Manila Friday afternoon on board the Ayala private luxury plane. Aumentado took advantage of discussing with Ayala, the brother of Bohol's philanthropist Bea Zobel Ayala Jr., on the Ayala Foundation's gearing for internet learning access to students (GILAS) in the 2nd district since the Globe fiber optics line from Cebu has been connected to the province through Tubigon, then to Ubay and Duero town before the fiber optic submarine cable was laid to Maasin City in Southern Leyte.

Mr. Ayala promised the congressman that the GILAS chief will coordinate with Aumentado for the information, communication technology (ICT) connectivity of all public high schools and elementary schools in the 2nd district where the solon and Education Secretary Armin Luistro have agreed in principle for the joint undertaking with GILAS for the high-tech learning of the public schools students and teachers therein. Aumentado conferred with Mr. Jerry Intig, Globe telephone company vice president for Visayas and Mindanao, in Cebu last Thursday night. The meeting was attended by NEDA Director Marlene Rodriguez, DepEd Director Ricaredo Borgonia, NEDA Assistant Director Efren Carreon and Health Assistant Regional Director Laksmi Legaspi. To assure Mr. Ayala and his team of the peace and order condition of Bohol, Aumentado told them that Bohol was declared insurgency-free by the Department of National Defense and the Philippine National Police on February 11, 2010. Since then, he said, there is no more report of insurgency-related violence in Bohol, including the burning of the Globe towers which were the object of the NPAs target before because of the Globe policy of not paying revolutionary tax to the outlaws.

Aumentado also briefed the Ayala group and the Sta. Clara International investors that the Department of Public works will soon bid the P200 million portland cement concrete pavement (PCCP) on the Sagbayan-Danao road and that he filed the bills for the conversion of the junction (TNR) Inabanga-Lapacan-Panghagban (Buenavista-Sta. Fe, Danao) and the Danao-Mahayag provincial roads into national roads inorder that the national government can also either cement or asphalt the highways as Danao has been considered a strategic tourism destination. He also informed them that the Asian Development Bank and DENR will start the reforestation of the Wahig-Pamacsalan watersheds, the source of water for Cantakoy Falls and Inabanga river. Thus, the adequacy of water to power the hydro turbines to generate energy or electricity for the Cantakoy Hydro Power Plant.