The Philippine National Oil Co. Energy Development Corp. will wait for the decision of the Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan on its request for concurrence of its bid to enter the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park to tap more geothermal energy, its senior vice president, Agnes de Jesus, said yesterday.

Environment Secretary Jose Atienza Jr. had earlier confirmed having authorized the DENR regional director for Western Visayas to process the application of PNOC EDC for a Special Tree-Cutting Permit inside the 169-hectare   buffer zone.

In a memorandum dated Feb. 20, Atienza cited the merit of the PNOC EDC request in terms of the production of significant geothermal energy that he said  is considered a better alternative to a fossil fuel based power source.

De Jesus said she was informed that the Department of Energy had also recently sent its opinion on the matter to the SP.

“We are confident the SP members will make their decision soon because they said the DENR and DOE comments were the only additional data they needed for an informed decision,” she said.

“We believe that as soon as the SP members receive the DOE comments, they would have the data that would make them confident to make a decision either way,” de Jesus also said.

Northern Negros Geothermal Project resident manager Gino dela Cruz said, “PNOC EDC is still waiting for the decision of the SP, as well as the formal communication from DENR and DOE”.

Vice Governor Emilio Yulo III asked Friday, “Why did PNOC-EDC ask for our concurrence if the DENR had already approved its permit to cut trees?”

“We have to clarify what the correct procedure to follow is, we hope this is clarified by the DENR,” he said.

PNOC EDC’s application for tree cutting permit and SP endorsement are two parallel processes that they have undertaken based on the advice of the governor’s office in 2007, dela Cruz said. 

“We submitted the requirements for the tree cutting permit to the DENR in November 2007 after securing the approval of the Mt. Kanla-on Protected Area Management Board of our biodiversity study and mitigating measures for the use of the geothermal buffer zone of the park during the October 19, 2007 en banc meeting,” he said in a press statement.

He said they applied for the tree-cutting permit to meet their commitment to the province to provide power by 2010-2011. He also said the development and testing of the required geothermal wells to recover the original 40MW capacity of the power plant outside the park will take at least one-and-a-half years.

“Once we clean the existing clogged up wells outside the park, the marginal resource can only sustain 17-20MW. Thus, the balance to address the 30 MW requirement of the province will come from the buffer zone,” he said.

“We understand that it is not only the DENR which will decide but also the SP. We will request the SP for a copy of the letter of DENR to learn the details of the permit,” dela Cruz explained.

PNOC EDC sought the clearance of the province as the host of its geothermal project and as a matter of company procedure, de Jesus said.

Last year, the company sought for the governor’s approval of its entry to the geothermal buffer zone. The Governor’s office advised the company to secure the endorsement of the SP as a matter of procedure prior to the governor’s signature, she said.

As has been reported in media, there were several hearings conducted by the SP and by February 19, 2008 the SP requested the comments of the DOE and DENR Secretaries as the issues being raised by sectors are technical in nature, de Jesus said.*CPG

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