President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday expressed his approval to the construction of the China-funded Kaliwa Dam and the Razon-led Wawa Dam, saying the structures would be the “last resort” to stabilize water supply in Metro Manila.
“This will be the last resort to have water for Manila. I will order them to go ahead,” Duterte said in a speech.
The President assured the public that those who would be affected by the controversial project would be paid and relocated.
The dam projects in Rizal and Quezon were seen to affect at least 56 indigenous people households and will place around 284 tribal households at risk of flooding, according to the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In his speech, Duterte blamed the indigenous communities and restraining orders from the courts for supposedly “delaying” the projects.
“Those who live there are, of course, they are all natives. They’re trying to delay the project and we need water for Manila,” he said.
Duterte last expressed support for the project in October, citing the water crisis that left dry faucets in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, a militant lawmaker has urged President Rodrigo Duterte to get tough on what he claimed as abusive players in the power sector in the same manner he did against water concessionaires.
Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate claimed that so-called onerous contracts—similar to what earned the President’s ire in connection with billionaire-owned water firms—are also being pushed by some power stakeholders.
“For the sake of consistency, President Duterte should be as tough on these power oligarchs as he was to these water concessionaires,” Zarate said, referring to Manila Water and Maynilad.
“They are also pushing for onerous contracts that will no doubt burden consumers,” added Zarate, who for years have warned the public on the disadvantageous nature of some proposed power supply agreements for the construction of several coal-fired power plants.
These power contracts are still pending before the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Zarate said President Duterte should also look into the power industry where “monopolies are also holding consumers hostage.”
“The constant threat of thinning power supply and brown outs in exchange for higher power rates or more onerous power supply agreements has been the bane of consumers for decades now,” Zarate said, reiterating an appeal to Malacañang in April 2019. During that month, the Luzon grid was placed under red alert status several times, leading to rotating brownouts in some areas.
“We agree with Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi, that the yellow and red alert warnings are a signal that demand has caught up with the existing supply and that there is a need to start building capacity, but we need to have a comprehensive nationalized power plan to achieve this.
“At the minimum, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) must be reviewed and drastically amended, or, at best even repealed out right so that it would be the government that would make the energy plan to be implemented and not just rely on the whim and greed of power oligarchs,” said the Davao-based solon.
In 2013, the ERC and DOE found basis to conclude that energy players colluded to jack up electricity prices in the spot market in the midst of simultaneous power plant shutdowns.
Zarate has long argued that these power plant outages and “tripping” are orchestrated by plant operators in order to create the illusion of a power shortage.
