Two officials from Quad River Power Corp. arrived Thursday to admit that indeed there were lapses in their information dissemination campaign but assured the public that all safety measures are instituted in the project to allay the fears of the constituents of Inabanga and Danao. But Board Member Josephine Socorro Jumamoy was unconvinced. As one who blew the whistle of the project’s discrepancies, the lady board member from Inabanga said it was not enough for proponents to admit its lapses. The project should be stopped at all cost adding it was contrary to the statement of Cong. Erico Aumentado that all activities have to be halted pending compliance of several environmental requirements. But while Board Member Jumamoy pulled all stops to delay the project implementation, reports reaching her office from the site indicated otherwise.

The board member from Inabanga was fed with information that a wide swathe in the Cantacoy area, the site of the proposed hydro-dam, was already cleared of all its vegetation including natural -grown trees. It was Inabanga Mayor Jose “Jono” Jumamoy who witnessed the clearing operations in the proposed plant site. Mayor Jumamoy, accompanied by a team of officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) led by PENRO Nestor Canda, made an aerial inspection aboard a helicopter last Wednesday to find out the real situation in the Cantacoy project. Mayor Jumamoy and his team were reported to have seen a cave located near the plant site that suffered cracks. An access road was built above the cave giving rise to suspicion that the cracks were caused by the road opening. The road has to be built leading to the project site to enable earth moving equipment to be brought to the area. A huge crane was photographed by a Post lensman and ready for transport to the project site in Cantacoy.

LAPSES ADMITTED

As this developed, Federico A. Donato, hydrologist, and John Jorge Orbe, project manager of Quad River clarified that while the lapse involved not immediately conducting social marketing in Inabanga, such activities are components of the project. Donato and Orbe said that they will immediately pay a courtesy call to Board Member o Jumamoy, along with their senior and top officials to brief her of the details of the project including assuring her that they are leaving no stone unturned to protect the people of Inabanga and Danao. The top officials of Quad River are to arrive soon.

Meanwhile, Donato and Orbe clarified that the trees that were cut did  not come from public land but from the private property of the barangay captain of Cabatuan. There were trees though that were cut as the road underwent widening. But they said that because of these cutting arising from access roads construction, the DOE and ECC required the company to plant 132,500 trees to make up for the potential number of trees that may have to be cut as they continue to construct and widen the road leading to the power plant site. The Cantakoy hydro-electric plant also uses the run-thru system in producing power. They do not use the storage type like the dams. In other words, they use gravity to run the turbines but they will have no catchbasins to store water. So the flow of water is the same as when there is no power plant. This type is similar to the tontonan hydro-electric plant that did not require water storage to produce electricity. So during heavy rains water flow naturally. They only raised the height level to produce enough gravity to run the turbine and produce between 5 to 8 MW of power. So the people of Inabanga which is the downstream part of the river need not fear that during heavy rains water will have to be released from valves to prevent a storage area from collapsing because there is no water storage area. But just the same, a social marketing will have to be undertaken in the Inabanga area particularly those within the river banks.

Since the height level has been raised it is estimated that the backwater would reach as farf as 6 kilometers from the midstream. But since the river is in the middle of gorges and mountains and there is no community in sight within the 6 to 10 km radius, the backwater will just raise by the mountainside and will affect only some rootcrops and trees. The backwater will not even reach the zipline site since the area in the tourism adventure of Danao is 75 meters above sea level and since the hydro-electric plant is 60 meters above sea level, the excess water will just flow naturally to its downstream. Those affected will be paid by Quad river, particularly their trees and rootcrops on top of giving them livelihood projects. It is estimated that in 3 to 5 years we will experience power shortage considering the goal of Pres. P-noy to energize the entire province of Bohol  by 2016 as reported by BOHECO Chair Engr. Carlos Itable. Cebu will also need more power as they invite more industrial investors. It is imperative that we are able to produce our own power, much better, renewable energy like hydro-electric plants..

VIOLATIONS

Meanwhile, after Jumamoy delivered a privilege speech two weeks ago denouncing the project, Gov. Edgar Chatto created a team to look into allegations of impropriety in the prosecution of the project. The team chaired by PENRO Canda and backed up by Provincial Legal Officer John Mitchell Boiser, lawyer Peter Emman Mende, also of PLO, lawyer Raul Barbarona from ELAC and Emma Roslinda of PROCESS Foundation. Canda said the proponent of the project violated some provisions in the Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued by the Environment Management Bureau. With the violations, the EMB regional director for Central Visayas called a technical conference this week in order to tackle the issue. DENR Secretary Ramon Paje will preside over the meeting with all members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan invited to attend.