Ceneco inks co-generation
with First Farmers

Monday was the closure of the Marañon era in Negros Occidental’s history. But yesterday also fired off the beginning of a new era – alternative energy for the province.

This was highlighted by the signing of the agreement between the Central Negros Electric Cooperative and the First Farmers for co-generation with the sugar mill.

The latter will sell to Ceneco its generated power from bagasse, a landmark in the history of the province.

Another major co-generation project could kick off next year will be the co-generation of power by the San Carlos Bioethanol plant in San Carlos City.

The details of the agreement will be written by reporters who covered yesterday’s signing of the co-generation agreement between Ceneco and First Farmers.

Monday, some 10,000 Sagaynons attended the burial of the late Negros Occidental Governor Joseph Marañon.He had died six days before his 74th birthday, a major loss for the province for which he slaved so much to provide the glimpses of a new day.

And it is but that also ushered in a new era in indigenous power generation based on the production of energy from bagasse- a sugar byproduct.

What makes yesterday’s development more newsworthy was the fact that if it happened just a day after the energy hearing at the provincial capitol by the House energy committee which focused on the Ceneco-Kepco coal power plant deal.

There were reservations about the agreement.And the opposition to it came from a lot of former presidents of the electric cooperative.

And there was also recently mounting opposition in Iloilo to the proposed establishment of a coal-powered plant in the heart of the city.The project is under the auspices of the Global Business Corp. in Barangay Ignore, of Iloilo’s La Paz District.

Calaca (Batangas) Mayor Nas Ona came out openly to warn Ilonggos to hold back their support for the Global project to construct a 164-megawatt coal-powered plant in Iloilo City.

Ona told local civic leaders and representatives of the Church and detailed what happened to the 600-MW coal-thermal plant in Calaca which Global had promised would bring into the place employment opportunities, cheap electricity rates, and revenues for the local government unit.

The Calaca local government would like to warn Ilonggos that the coal powered plant had failed to generate the promises it had bade prior to the establishment of the coal-powered plant.

He pointed out that the workers employed by Calaca were not local residents. They pointed out that it created labor problems because the workers were either underpaid or earned only marginal pay.

The laborers of the plant, he said, were exploited by the coal-powered plant.

Ona warned Ilonggos not to fall prey to the promises of the coal plant proponent, pointing out that he did not want the Ilonggos to undergo the same hardship they had undergone in Calaca because of the coal plant.

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Suspected New People’s Army rebels raided and burned two sugarcane transloading stations in Toboso, Negros Occidental, Sunday night.

 It caused a damage estimated at P4.8 million, according to the police.

The raided transloading stations were those of the Victorias Milling Company and the Lopez Sugar Corp. in San Jose, Toboso.

Four prime movers with trailers, two cranes and a wheeler truck, scale house, two generator sets and a fuel tank with pumps were destroyed by the raiders estimated to numberabout 50 persons.

Col. Honorato Reyes, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said the raids were apparently intended to divert the attention of the military who have been hunting them down in the mountainous areas of the Calatrava, Toboso, Escalante and Sagay areas.

Rather belatedly Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, the provincial police chief, said he had discussed with military authorities the possibility of deploying police or military personnel to the transloading stations in the area.

This is believed also as a warning to the two sugar mills to pay revolutionary taxes to the CPP-NPA in northern Negros.

So what do we do now?Perhaps, it is time for the CPP-NPA to recognize that if they succeed in wiping out the industry, they shall be depriving thousands of people-their principal source of livelihood.And what can they offer in exchange to that?

That’s something which most of us, Negrenses, seemed to have glossed over as we follow our emotions to take our reason.*

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