SHERWIN T. Gatchalian who chairs the Senate energy committee, said the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and Department of Energy (DoE) need to help resolve the shutdown of three Benguet hydro plants operated by an Aboitiz Power Corp. subsidiary following the withdrawal of consent from the traditional owners of ancestral land.
The affected facilities in the town of Bakun are the 2.4-megawatt (MW) Lower Labay, 3.6-MW Lon-oy, and 5.9-MW FLS hydro facilities, which the NCIP Cordillera Administrative Region wants Aboitiz unit Hedcor to shut down within five days of receipt of its cease-and-desist order (CDO).
“While the issue confronting Hedcor and the indigenous communities is legal in nature, I implore the NCIP and DoE to work out a possible solution,” Mr. Gatchalian said in a statement Monday, adding that it was important that the facilities continue to operate during the pandemic.
“At a time when there’s a threat of yellow and red alerts in the power supply, we have to make sure that all plants are up and running especially now that we’re in the middle of a global health crisis,” he said.
DoE Renewable Energy Bureau Director Mylene C. Capongcol confirmed that the department is helping resolve the shutdown of Hedcor’s three hydro plants.
“We are helping,” she told BusinessWorld in an e-mail Monday. “The DoE helps in the earliest resolution of the issue or concerns, explaining the importance of ensuring power supply adequacy in the grid,” Ms. Capongcol said.
Hedcor has said it is exerting efforts to start a dialogue with the indigenous peoples in the area.
According to the CDO issued by the NCIP, indigenous groups issued a resolution of non-consent in April, citing “highly disadvantageous conditions in their memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Hedcor” and the “firm’s alleged use of the (MoA) as a tool to unduly exert pressure on the Bakun local government unit officials to yield to (the company’s) demands.”
Hedcor said it followed all the requirements while obtaining free prior informed consent (FPIC), a requirement for building on ancestral domains.
“We believe that we have been compliant with all the requirements during the course of the FPIC application process, and have been waiting for the issuance of the Certificate Precondition (CP) since the FPIC-MoA was signed,” Hedcor’s Vice-President for Corporate Services Noreen Marie N. Vicencio told the bourse in a June 23 disclosure.
Under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997, project developers can only acquire permits and licenses after receiving the CP from the NCIP, manifesting consent from the indigenous community hosting the project.
Hedcor currently operates 21 hydropower plants supplying 258 MW of renewable energy. — Angelica Y. Yang