Imminent destruction by foreign energy projects in Bicol

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This article is available in Pilipino

Expansive and destructive energy projects are set to be constructed in Bicol. Two of these are plans to explore geothermal energy or energy produced by the earth’s internal heat, spearheaded by the Premier Geoexcel Inc. in Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur. Copenhagen Infrastracture New Markets Fund (CINMF) also plans to construct a “wind farm” in the same provinces. These are being marketed as alternative sources of electricity or renewable energy but there was no mention of concomitant widespread landgrabbing and imminent environmental destruction.

CINMF’s project in Bicol is the largest among the three projects subsumed by the first ever contract in renewable energy to be owned 100% by foreign investors. The two remaining projects were set to be built in Northern Samar, Pangasinan, and La Union.

The projects include the construction of roads that will drill through and plow over the hearts of mountains and communities of Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur, certain to highlight the uprooting of trees and land excavations. Residents fear widespread landgrabbing, disruption of communities as well as physical and economic dislocation.

Like other geothermal and similar projects, these will produce destructive “waste materials” or toxic sludge that will poison watersheds in its vicinity.

Imminent destruction by foreign energy projects in Bicol