Former Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn has appealed to President Aquino and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to stop the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Narra, Palawan, adding his voice to the call of environmentalists to keep the province as the “last ecological frontier” of the country.
Pressure to stop the construction of the 15-megawatt coal-fired power plant of the DMCI Power Corporation (DPC) continues to mount ever since the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) approved last month the project by issuing a Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) clearance, a requirement to secure an environment compliance certificate (ECC).
But Hagedorn, an environmentalist, appealed to the DENR to deny the power plant project an ECC, stressing that “protecting the environment is an issue that even a grade one pupil is fully aware of. It’s a matter that concerns all the people of planet Earth in which the survival of future generations hinges on.”
Likewise, the Catholic Church in the Philippines joined the growing opposition to coal mining, not only in Palawan but around the nation, convinced that this will not only make the country a major contributor to climate change, but also endanger the ecosystem, the health, and lives of the people.
MANILA BULLETIN
