The National Democratic Front-Negros expressed its support to environment defenders, church people and other groups in their fight against the planned expansion of coal-powered plant Therma Visayas Inc (TVI) in Toledo City, Cebu. The said plant is owned by the Aboitizes. More than 60 groups launched on September 18 the “Save Tañon Strait” campaign opposing the project that will destroy the Tañon Strait between the islands of Cebu and Negros.

The groups are opposing the expansion as it will destroy the Tañon Strait, which is the second largest marine protected area in the country and recognized as an Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA). The strait is has an area of 521,018 hectares, and home to 14 documented species of whales and dolphins, including the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin.

“TVI’s expansion provides more harm than benefit, if anything,” NDF-Negros spokesperson Ka Bayani Obrero said. He said it will continue to affect livelihoods including those relying on the Tañon Strait, which is a major fishing ground for Cebuanos and Negrosanons.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said more than 40,000 registered fisherfolk will be affected if the Tañon Strait is destroyed based on their preliminary consultation with the coastal communities.

Save Tañon Strait underscores the expansion plan’s violation of the moratorium imposed by the Department of Energy on coal in 2020 and the Extended National Integrated Protected Area System (ENIPAS) Act. They questioned Department of Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla for his approval of the plant’s expansion in 2023. A corruption and administrative case has already been filed against Sec. Lotilla in July.

Aboitiz Power is currently obtaining a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. Construction of its third plant is expected to begin in 2025 and will be completed by 2028.

“The expansion project is no different from the large-scale dislocation of urban poor and fisherfolk in both Dumaguete and Bacolod City,” said Ka Bayani. The revolutionary group’s spokesperson said the local government’s so-called development projects with the facade of a smart city and a coal-fired power plant was built only so the bourgeois comprador and big landlords, in collusion with bureaucrat capitalists, can expand their power and businesses.

“This is but another neoliberal scheme pushed by the reactionary government to pocket more profit,” Ka Bayani emphasized.

Save Tañon Strait was spearheaded by church people such as Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of the Diocese of San Carlos in Negros Occidental, environmental groups, youth and others from the Visayas.

NDF-Negros assured its continuous support to the campaign for environmental protection. The reactionary government’s neglect of the environment only shows that only the People’s Democratic Government can deliver a proper defense of the environment, he said.