MANILA, Philippines – The $2-billion environmental project of Sarangani Energy Corp. (SEC) of the Alsons Power Group has been validated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for environmental protection and community support.
SEC said the DENR issued a certificate of compliance (COC) for its environmental project, located within the vicinity of its 210-megawatt (MW) baseload coal-fired power plant.
Under the project, the power firm aims to plant 3.75 million seedlings covering 7,500 hectares — an area bigger than the City of Manila and over twice the size of Makati City — within a 15-year period, or by 2027, to protect the Siguil and Kamanga River watersheds in Maasim, Sarangani province.
The COC from DENR confirmed that SEC completed planting over 1.29 million seedlings covering 1,208 hectares as of February 2016, which were confirmed by DENR field personnel and duly approved by the DENR Region 12 director.
The area planted now covers 2,865.5 hectares in five barangays in Maasim, namely: Amsipit, Bales, Kablacan, Lumatil and Pananag
The Maasim Watershed Protection Project started in 2012 after several years of dialogs and consultations between SEC and various stakeholders since 2008 with the commencement of an environmental impact assessment (EIA).
Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
These efforts led to SEC signing a tripartite memorandum of agreement (MOA) on March 30, 2012 with the DENR and the Maasim Highlander Farmers Association (MAHIFA), a people’s organization composed of the residents, many of whom are members of the B’laan and T’boli indigenous communities.
SEC said its project has benefited over 450 families in the covered areas and has provided them with employment as field laborers assisting in the implementation of the watershed reforestation project with various forest tree species and fruit trees such as tuai, mantalisay, narra, coffee, cacao,guyabano, cashew and many others.
The 201-MW SEC plant, with a project cost of $570 million, is the single largest investment in Sarangani province and the entire Region 12.
The plant’s Section 1 began operating in April 2016, providing 105 MW of baseload power to over three million residents of Sarangani, General Santos City and other key areas in Mindanao.
Meanwhile, Section 2 of the SEC plant is expected to be completed in April 2019 and is seen to contribute another 105-MW baseload power to three million residents of South Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro City, and other growing population centers in Mindanao.
