Rep. Rico: Build more Bohol power projects

Rep. Erico B. Aumentado

By JUNE S. BLANCO

  

REP. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) will push for more hydroelectric and biomass power projects for the province to ensure against shortage the Department of Energy (DOE) projects to hit Central Visayas in 2016.

This after Engr. Rey Maleza, DOE Energy Management Division supervisor said Central Visayas will need 50 megawatts more in three years to support business, industry and service connection needs.

Aumentado said Bohol is abundant in rivers, dams and biomass materials waiting to be tapped for renewable energy – among them the proposed Cantakoy Hydroelectric Plant in Danao town. However, the solon rued, this project is being challenged by the Provincial Board, particularly by Board Members Josephine Socorro Jumamoy and Romulo Cepedoza and Trinidad Mayor Roberto Cajes. The lawmakers had separately expressed their opposition in separate privilege speeches.

Aumentado said he could not get heads or tails on their opposition because pre-feasibility studies show that the project is for the common good of the Boholanos who are the citizens that public servants are supposed to have sworn to serve.

He said the P1.3-billion Cantakoy Hydroelectric Plant funded by the Ayalas and the Sta. Clara Power Corp. that formed the Quadriver Power Corporation as a joint venture can generate 10 megawatts of additional power for Bohol.

He said Jumamoy’s opposition is apparently due to apprehension that while the siltation and power dams are to be designed to prevent the submerging of Inabanga town, it might adversely affect the sand and gravel quarry she is operating under the name allegedly of other persons as permittees in a move to circumvent tax laws and other duties.

On the other hand, Aumentado said, politics is the unseen hand holding Cepedoza because he had endorsed the Cantakoy project until he and his brother Jose, the incumbent vice mayor, clashed with Mayor Louis Thomas Gonzaga and the latter’s family over dissenting political stands in spite of their being close relatives..

The solon added that Cajes’ opposition to the project is similarly politically motivated – to get the sympathy and votes of Jumamoy and her son Jono the incumbent mayor of Inabanga, and their followers.

Aumentado said records at the Bohol Investment Promotion Center (BIPC) would show that the province now has only 103.3 MW of power of which 75 MW are the average load already during peak hours. The increase is brought on by more businesses and private residences applying for power connections, explained General Manager Carlos Itable, manager of the Bohol II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Boheco 2) that serves the power distribution needs in northern and eastern Bohol.

Aumentado said the current excess will fall short when the New Bohol Airport in Panglao Island will be operational, hence the need to lay the groundwork now for more generation to avert outages like what the Ayala and Sta. Clara joint venture has been doing. Engr. Asisclo Gonzaga heads Sta. Clara. Companies like Quadriver are in the best position to devewlop hydroelectric power as well as even giant irrigation dams, he explained.

This is also his reason in pushing for the Bohol Northeast Basin Multi-purpose Dam (BNBMPD) project that can irrigate some 19,000 hectares in Danao, Dagohoy, San Miguel, Trinidad, Bien Unido and Ubay towns. On top of the 10 MW of power the dam can generate, it will also serve as flood control for low-lying areas in Danao, Inabanga, Dagohoy and San Miguel, with eco-agri tourism to boast of to boot, Aumentado explained.

He added that concreting of the access road to the proposed plant site from the Carmen-Dagohoy boundary to Brgy. Concepcion in Danao is almost finished. The P114-million concrete road with another P130 million for a bridge along this road on top of comfort rooms for travelers are support infrastructure for the BNBMPD, he added.
 

At the same time, Aumentado is also pushing for the Bayongan Dam Hydro Power project that the Sunwest Power and Water Corporation will construct next year. It is expected to generate at least another three MW that experts say will not divert, lessen  or waste of the dam’s irrigation water for San Miguel, Trinidad ug Ubay, as well as the potable water for the San Miguel Waterworks System using modern Korean technology in filtration and chlorination system.