Cordillerans warned: Abusive developers out to exploit hydro resources

By Dexter See

BAGUIO CITY – Local governments, non-government organizations and host communities must be wise enough in making sure that the rich natural resources of the Cordillera, especially its hydro resources, will not be eventually owned by abusive investors and developers, an expert on the country’s energy situation said here Friday.

Engr. David A. Tauli, senior vice president and head of the engineering services division of the Cagayan de Oro-based Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company, Inc. said in dealing with unscrupulous investors, local officials and indigenous peoples must make sure that the developers of power plants must be willing to turnover to the local government, NGO or the host community the facility after the expiration of the 15, 20 or 25-year agreement.

“No person could absolutely declare ownership to the gifts of man given by the Almighty,” Tauli stressed, adding the region’s resources must be enjoyed by the people and not unscrupulous investors.

Tauli was the main speaker during a forum on Power Generation organized by the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) with participants coming from the different electric cooperatives in the Cordillera.

Aside from willful turnover of the power plants the veteran CEPALCO official recommended local governments, HGOs and host communities must insist to the investor or developer that it will give to the host communities 5 percent of its gross receipts which will be exclusively utilized for watershed management initiatives in order to ensure the abundance of water to continuously make the power plants productive.

According to him, multinational investors are taking advantage of the host communities by providing them with supposed community projects but with a hidden agenda of solely owning the power plants to be constructed in their respective places, thus, local officials and indigenous peoples must be vigilant in negotiating with them so that they will be successful in incorporating the mandatory provisions of turnover of the plants to the community and the 5 percent from gross receipts for watershed projects in the final agreement.

“We have a lot of investors who are willing to develop the resources of the region to ensure the stability of renewable energy and they are willing to take the inclusion of the mandatory provisions in the agreement since they have already recovered their investments and earn enough,” he added, citing that compared to other existing developers who want to own the gifts of man, they are the much better ones because they are aware of the plight of host communities.

Earlier, the Department of Energy (DOE) identified the Cordillera as one of the major sources of renewable energy, particularly hydro power, because of the abundance of water coming from the watersheds of the region.

Instead of being convinced by the huge investments being poured by developers which are appearing as corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects just to get their consent for the putting up of hydro plants in various communities in the region, Tauli explained such projects being implemented will be deducted from the tax share of the host communities once the power plants start operating and will greatly affect their share from the national wealth tax which they deserve to get in full.