Dirty brew

The classic sound bite of the company of leaving no one behind is hard to discern from the way SMC treats communities it considers as getting in the way of its massive projects.

Harmony with the communities where San Miguel Corp. — which gained fame for its renowned beer — has put up its energy plants is not what the company is projecting, as most plants have been the subject of massive complaints from residents.

According to a survey by think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology and Development, most of the complaints are related to the effects on the environment of the projects.

For instance, in 2017, communities and civil society organizations launched the Break Free 2017 campaign to oppose the expansion of fossil fuel industries at the project site of SMC’s Limay Coal Power Plant.

Residents of Limay, Bataan complained of being exposed to the emissions of the then 300-megawatt, or MW, coal plant and the 140-MW plant of the Petron Bataan Fuel Refinery.

The groups’ claim that the plant’s testing operations may have resulted in ash spills was found to be accurate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which issued a Cease and Desist Order.

Before SMC acquired the Masinloc power plant in 2018, the plant was already subjected to opposition, which led to delays in its operation during the 1990s.

Environmentalists, farmers, and fishermen at the time staged protests, claiming that contaminated water from the plant would reduce the fish catch. The Masinloc power plant was then owned and operated by state firm National Power Corp. and was billed as the solution to the long brownouts that Luzon suffered daily.

Using his emergency powers, then-President Fidel Ramos endorsed the quick construction of the project, displacing over 1,000 individuals in the process. It was then discovered that the plant produced over 385,000 tons of ash yearly, putting local communities’ health at risk.

The previous owners of the Masinloc power plant claimed to have spent over $1 billion for its realignment to make it more environmentally friendly. SMC considered the power asset as allowing them to increase their footprint in clean coal technology.

There were then also complaints from residents whom CEED said were directly impacted by some of SMCGP’s coal power plants. The residents alleged harassment and intimidation by various individuals for them to give up their properties.

In 2016, SMCGP proposed to construct and operate its Limay Power Station in Limay, Bataan. A portion of the power plant site was thereafter fenced off by private individuals who claimed to have sold the property, and people were prohibited from entering or accessing the crops they had planted in the area.

The situation was the same in Sariaya, Quezon in 2018, after SMCGP proposed the construction of a circulating fluidized bed coal-fired power plant in the municipality.

In Mariveles, Bataan, where SMC’s Mariveles coal-fired power plant units 1 to 4 will rise, residents found themselves ousted from the property they were living on, through rights, at  the peak of the Covid-19 lockdowns by alleged landowners claiming the property had been sold.

SMC’s mining business is also facing its fair share of opposition. Its Daguma Agro Minerals Inc., or DAMI, was granted a coal development and production operating contract in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat by the Department of Energy back in 2002.

The contract included the 17,000 hectares of collective land that the SMC mining companies planned to explore.

San Miguel Energy Corp. acquired full ownership of DAMI, which was owned by a group headed by businessman Ben Guingona.

DAMI has coal mines in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat, in areas known for being rich in mineral deposits.

DAMI’s projects in South Cotabato were opposed by environmental advocates, the local Catholic diocese, and the host communities, due to environmental and encroachment concerns.

DAMI uses the strip mining method, a form of open-pit mining that is forbidden by South Cotabato’s 2010 environment code.

The provincial board of South Cotabato rejected a resolution that would have endorsed DAMI’s mining operations since it violated South Cotabato’s ban on open-pit mining.

The provincial board, however, moved to amend the code and lift the ban. Local officials are now under fire as they kept residents unaware of SMC’s tree-clearing operations.

South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., in response, vetoed the lifting of the ban on open-pit mining.

The classic sound bite of the company of leaving no one behind is hard to discern from the way SMC treats communities it considers as getting in the way of its massive projects.

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Credit belongs to: tribune.net.ph