Rufus sets Kawal meet with House Ecology Committee

The Kagayan Watershed Alliance (Kawal) will meet the House Ecology Committee in Cagayan de Oro to discuss concerns regarding the proposed bioethanol plant in the upland barangays of Bayanga and Mambuaya.

Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez (2nd District) said the House of Representatives Committee on Ecology chaired by Zamboanga Sibugay (1st District) Rep. Belma A. Cabilao will conduct a public hearing on August 6, 2009 at Pryce Plaza on House Bill No. 5880 which seeks to reforest 3,000 hectares of public land in Cagayan de Oro City and appropriating P37-million for its implementation. All eight congressmen who are members of the committee are expected to join the public hearing.

"I will arrange for Kawal to have a meeting on the sidelines either before or after our public hearing," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez met with Kawal representatives at the Archbishop´s House Saturday, July 22 to discuss pressing issues regarding the proposed construction of the Alson´s Consolidated Resources (ACR) bioethanol plant within the Cagayan de Oro Watershed.

Also present were Rep. Roland Uy (1st District), Rep. Ariel Hernandez (Anak Mindanao Party List) and opposition councilor Rogelio Abaday. The meeting was hosted by Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma.

Carl Cesar C. Rebuta, Cagayan de Oro team leader of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center – Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC – KsK / Friends of the Earth Philippines) presented the legislators with a draft bill which seeks to declare the Cagayan de Oro Watershed Zone and natural monuments as a protected area.

Rodriguez earlier authored House Resolution 852 urging the House Committee on Ecology to investigate the proposed bioethanol plant to be constructed in Barangays Bayanga and Mambuaya in Cagayan de Oro City.

Meantime, Kawal said the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 10 has returned ACR´s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) following the applicant´s apparent failure to comply with some requirements.

One of the members of the two independent review committees who spoke on condition of anonymity said ACR submitted a revised EIS but did not submit the detailed hydrology on the proposed plant´s source of water as well as the detailed volume and characteristics of its effluents, hence he did not sign the report.

"I returned their ECC application to conform with the comments of the stakeholders and independent review committee," said EMB-10 Director Sabdullah Abubacar.

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