The Energy Development Corp. yesterday began cutting trees in the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park buffer zone to pave the way for geothermal exploration, even as Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra and Greenwatch Philippines backed the bid for court action to stop it.

EDC spokesman Joey Higgins said the cutting of trees began after a provincial government Oversight Monitoring and Compliance Committee headed by Board Member Mae Javellana visited the area Saturday to inspect the trees to be cut.

Representatives of the oversight committee and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources were present during the cutting of trees, Javellana said.

The DENR has granted EDC permission to cut 4,213 trees in the buffer zone, Higgins said.

Of the 4,213 trees to be cut, only .08 percent are large trees, while 5.8 percent are medium sized and 93.4 percent are small, Higgins said.

EDC has said it needs to tap more geothermal energy in the buffer zone to boost the production of its power plant in Mailum, Bago, to meet a “power shortage” in Negros Occidental.

Javellana said trees in the buffer zone that cannot be cut have been marked and EDC has made revisions to avoid more big trees.

Gov. Isidro Zayco last week signed a Memorandum of Agreement containing conditions set by the Negros Occidental Sanggunian to further protect the environment in the buffer zone.

Navarra and Don Flordeliza, Greenwatch Philippines head, yesterday aired their support for the class suit spearheaded by the Save the Mt. Kanlaon Movement seeking to stop the cutting of trees in the buffer zone.

The class suit will be heard by Judge Rodney Bolunia of the Regional Trial Court of Bacolod Branch 44 Thursday morning, lawyer Andrea Si said.

“I am not after any personality, I am only after the good of the people and the preservation of our heritage, which is very sacred. I don't think this is just a small matter that should be done away just like that because it has government approval, (and) because everybody seems to be endorsing it,” Navarra said.

“That ‘everybody' should be put in quotation marks because it is only those who have vested interest who are endorsing it. But who will suffer later on? It's our province, the people and our heritage,” he said.

“We are appealing to the EDC, the business sector and the government officials to give this matter serious consideration,” he said.

The crisis that has hit the Philippines is caused by dishonesty and graft a corruption that is ailing the nation, he said.

If government money had not been wasted, it could have been used for the tapping of wind and hydro power so the cutting of the trees in the buffer zone would not have to be forced on the people, he said.

Navarra called on the people to strengthen their faith in the Lord and not to lose hope, stressing that people from all walks of life should take interests in things that are happening around them and stand up against destruction of the nation's patrimony.

Flordeliza, who grew up in Canlaon City , Negros Oriental, said his group is joining the campaign to save the trees in the buffer zone.

There is no assurance that EDC will stop its search for geothermal power in the buffer zone, he warned.

Instead of entering the buffer zone for geothermal power, wind energy that Negros is rich in should instead be explored and tapped, he said. Negros Occidental is capable of producing 90 megawatts of wind power, enough to power its entire province, he said.

Si, who filed the class suit pro bono, said they have a very strong case against EDC but if they are not granted the TRO, she has faith that “God has his own way of issuing a TRO”.

“Although we are saddened in a way that the governor signed the MOA we know that, in a way, he had no choice because it was also the province's way of protecting the 169 hectares,” she said.

“We are looking forward to the hearing on Thursday because we know that there are very strong valid legal reasons for keeping EDC out of the so-called buffer zone,” Si said.

“We hope that the governor, the members of the provincial board and all other officials in Negros will realize that even if, and I'm saying if, we need electricity that the geothermal project might provide we cannot afford to take legal shortcuts to allow EDC in,” she said.

Si said she they are optimistic that the EDC project will not push through because even if we cannot get their TRO, they believe that God has his own way of making TRO.

Zayco said he signed the MOA as stipulated by the SP precisely to protect the buffer zone.

He pointed out that the EDC entry into the buffer zone is allowed by law and the DENR had given the firm a cutting permit already.*CPG

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