Environmentalists decry the Supreme Court’s decision “demolishing major Writ of Kalikasan cases in favour of corporations and other polluters.”
By DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) assailed the Supreme Court’s decision allowing the operation of the 600 megawatt coal-fired power plant of Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy) in Subic, Zambales province.
“We find appalling the decision of the Supreme Court to give a legal OK to the Subic coal-fired power plant in spite of the clear rejection by residents of Subic and Zambales including the local government units,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE. “Is ‘profit, pollution over people, planet’ the new motto of the PH judicial system?”
In its Feb. 3 decision, the Supreme court (SC) en banc voted 13-0 in favour of RP Energy, as it reversed and set aside the Court of Appeals (CA) decision and resolution in 2013.
The SC en banc issued a writ of Kalikasan on July 31, 2012, and referred the petition to the CA.
The CA resolution on May 22, 2013 invalidated the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) issued to the firm by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (Denr), and the Lease and Development Agreement (LDA) between RP Energy and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SMBA).
In an earlier decision, on Jan. 30, 2013, the CA turned down the petition for a writ of Kalikasan, saying that the petitioners failed to prove any damages caused by the plant that affects the population.
A writ of kalikasan is a legal remedy for people’s organizations, NGOs and public interest groups “whose constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology is violated or threatened.”
“We wonder how the authorities failed to see the impending threats to the Zambales communities’ life and environment when there is a wide scientific consensus that so-called ‘clean coal’ is currently just a pipe dream,” said Bautista. “A new coal power project is not and will never be a solution to the people’s electricity woes.”
He reiterated that the project “presented serious potential environmental and social impact to surrounding communities and ecosystems.”
“The Supreme Court’s questionable track record is apparent in its unanimously overturning, if not outrightly demolishing major Writ of Kalikasan cases in favor of corporations and other polluters, as in the case of the Tubbataha Reef grounding, and now the RP Energy coal power plant,” Bautista said.
Kalikasan PNE said the privatization and deregulation of the energy industry is behind the high power rates and supply shortage.
RP Energy is a consortium of Therma Power Inc., a subsidiary of AboitizPower, Meralco PowerGen Corporation, a subsidiary of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and the Taiwan Cogeneration Corporation.
“The SC should have focused its energies towards addressing the long-standing legal challenges to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA instead of messing around with the Subic coal plant,” said Bautista.
The group is pushing for House Resolution 787, a bill for moratorium on coal-fired power plants. 
