Was the operation of the Asin hydros illegal?

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger D. Sinot

TUBA, Benguet- Tuba folks said that the Baguio City Government is illegally operating the controversial Asin Power Plants (APP) saying they had exhausted all legal options to compel the latter to pay for the use of their lands where the hydros and other facilities are located since the beginning of the City's take over.

A task force was created by no less than Bengue Governor Nestor Fongwan headed by then Provincial Board Member Nardo B. Cayat in 2007, where the body found out that the Baguio City Government did not have legal papers to prove it owned the lots where the power plants were were located. The Governor advised the group to write the Municipal Mayor not to issue a business permit to the City Government until such was addressed.

Mayor Florencio Bentrez and all the Tuba councilors except Hon. Blas Dalus were castigated by the organization for coming up with a consensus that they would affirm the stand of the Baguio City Government on the matter in spite of their plight. The councilors then who reportedly backed the stand to issue a permit to the City were Adora Paus, Cris Akia, Veronica Apil, (the late) Dick Balting, ABC president Zaldy Guileng, Pedro Esteban, Clarita Sal-ongan, and Jerome Palaoag.

As early as January 04, 2007, the Tadiangan Nangalisan Hydro Ancestral Landowners Association (TNHALA) agreed to file a petition and issuance of a temporary restraining order and preliminary mandatory injunction against the City of Baguio for the stoppage of its unwanted take-over of the said hydro plants, since these plants are within the Ancestral Domain of Tuba, Benguet. The following week, it filed a case with the NCIP-Legal office after the claims of the landowners were identified by NCIP-Benguet headed by Ms. Nora Ramos.

The City of Baguio for a long time had benefited from the resources of Benguet particularly in Tuba, along the Asin area. The land claimants had been praying that no such repetition of exploitation as experienced in the past will ever come out between the two sister communities where one enriches itself out of the resources of another. This is not a good and proper concept of the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay Program or BLISST.

The landowners comprising more than a hundred at present said that the City Government does not have an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to operate the plants.

They also said the City does not have a Certificate of Compliance (COC) from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) pursuant to the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA Law) also known as Republic Act 9136 of 2001.

Aside from these, they said the City Government has never conducted a "Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC) from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples that is a requirement before it can start operating the plants".

The IRR states that "No person or entity may engage in the generation of electricity unless such person or entity, private or public, may engage in the generation of electricity unless such person or entity has received a COC from ERC to operate facilities used in the generation of electricity".

The association had sent a series of letters to the City Government to act on their demands prior to the turn-over of the facilities from HEDCOR to the City on December 26, 2006 but were ignored. The group even cited in their letters that all communications to Government offices should be answered within 15 days, according to Civil Service Commission (CSC) rules.

The case with the NCIP-CAR was to make the City Government cease and desist from using their power plants until it would pay for the use of their lands. Seemingly being ignored, this made the group to decide to shut down the intake valves leading to plant no. 1 that supplied water to the power plants, with the consent of the water guards.

When the City Government through their representatives seriously went to ERC-DOE for a franchise (COC), it found out that a memorandum of agreement with the other party is a must. This is an agreement of the buyer and the seller. The Benguet Electric Cooperative or BENECO has the license to buy but the City has no licence to sell, which makes the operation illegal from the beginning.

A compromise agreement was done four years ago to resolve this woe. Until now, no payment was made.

Now, you know why the operation of the AsinHydros illegal. What Now?

To the stake holders of the AsinHydros; the landowners, the Province of Benguet, the municipality of Tuba, the Barangaqys of Tadiangan, and Nangalisan, the City of Baguio. What now?