Court urged: Stop hydro power plant in La Union

By Erwin G. Beleo

ARINGAY, La Union – Farmers living along the river bank in this town and a non-government organization have filed a case before the Regional Trial Court  Branch 31 here seeking a temporary environmental protection order (Tepo to stop the ongoing construction of a P240-million hydro power plant in Barangay Halog East, Tubao, this province.

The farmers and the Aringay Development Coordinating Team, represented by lawyer Charlie Juloya, alleged that the management of the Tubao Mini-Hydro Electric Power Corporation (TMHEC) violated several environmental laws in constructing the project that would endanger the lives of the residents along the river bank.

“We filed the case because farmers and residents of Aringay were not consulted about the project,” Juloya said. “There were violations in the ‘environmental compliance certificate’ (ECC). Instead of a 10-meter high diversion run-of-river, the project became a 25-meter high impounding dam and instead of a 1.5 megawatt it is now designed for a 3-megawatt hydro-power plant,” he added.

Juloya said the project will cause flooding and would affect around 6,000 farmers because it will hold waters for the irrigation of vast farm lands in the second district of La Union.