SAGAY CITY - Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday said Negrenses  as a sign of protest against global warming and  climate change should oppose any  purchase of electricity from  coal-fired plants.

Central Negros Electric Cooperative in Bacolod City  has been under fire for signing a contract to purchase coal power from KEPCO-Salcon Power Corp. in Cebu.

KSPC will build a 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Naga, Cebu to supply electricity to CENECO and other electric cooperatives in the Visayas starting 2011.

“Maybe as a sign of protest Negrenses should not be buying  coal power from Cebu, and should  stick to renewable energy,” said Zubiri, who was in this city for the funeral of Gov. Joseph Marañon.

Zubiri said on his way to this city, he saw water logged sugarcane fields.

It’s still raining in mid-March and cane fields are water logged, Zubiri said, because of climate change.

Climate change is  directly derailing  economic progress in  Negros Island  because of too much rain when  we don’t need it, he added.

We have to go renewable energy to mitigate climate change, Zubiri said.

                             ON LAKAS MERGER

Meanwhile, Zubiri,  secretary-general of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, said a merger of his party and the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino  may not happen  within the next year but hopefully will be ready before 2010.

 There will be a merger but there are some difficulties on the ground that need to be ironed out.

He noted that in Negros Occidental, Lakas-CMD has its own provincial  chairman and KAMPI also has its own.

The mediation and  arbitration committee is settling differences nationwide          to make the merger possible, he said.

‘GRANDSTANDING’

Zubiri also said he believes the Senate should wrap up its hearings on the National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE and come up with a committee report.

The senators already have  all the documentary and testimonial evidence  to come out now with a committee report and recommendations, he said.

If the committee hearings continue, they are already in aid of grandstanding, Zubiri said .

Some senators are asking questions like broken down records, modulating their voices for live radio and emoting for television, Zubiri said.*CPG

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