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[av_heading heading=’PEOPLE POWWOW ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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WHILE in San Jose, Antique, this columnist asked his townmates for reaction to Sen. Loren Legarda’s “yes” vote to the Tax Reform for Acceleration Inclusion (TRAIN) law that would hike excise taxes on, among others, local coal from the present P10 per cubic meter to P50 in the year 2018, P100 in 2019 and finally P150 in 2020 and beyond.
Like senators Joel Villanueva and Juan Miguel Zubiri, Legarda had fought for a bigger P300 excise tax and 12 percent value-added tax (VAT) on coal but this was trimmed down and dropped, respectively, by the bicameral committee.
Most Antiqueño respondents reacted unkindly to the lady senator who claims to be an Antiqueña. If she is indeed one of them, why would she approve a legislation that could destabilize the coal-mining company – Semirara Mining and Power Corporation – that sits on the province’s Semirara Island? It’s already one of the nation’s biggest taxpayers and the biggest source of income for the municipality of Caluya.
Coal mining in Semirara generates huge tax revenues for Caluya – between P300- and P500-million annually.
There were others who praised Legarda for her position on the assumption that coal is a dirty source of energy. Hence, its patronage should be eradicated.
While she has never been a resident of Antique, she is a great granddaughter of Don Ariston Gella of Pandan, Antique, who was Antique’s representative to the 1898 Malolos Congress.
The coal produced by Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) at Semirara comprises 40 percent of the total coal used by coal-fired power plants in the Philippines.
Excessive taxation could jack up its price higher than petroleum products. If that happens, it could be raised as an issue against “graduating” Senator Legarda, who is rumored to be interested in running for representative of the lone district of Antique in 2019.
Add to that the still unheralded “conflict of interest” arising from the role of her 24-year-old son Leandro Legarda Leviste, proprietor of Solar Philippines, which sells solar panels. Installed on rooftop, the “solar system” could energize lights and appliances. Unfortunately, it is still beyond the reach of low- and middle-income power consumers.
Of course, Mama Loren could always justify her partiality to her son’s product. Once installed, it would provide free renewable energy from the sun, in contrast to coal that is widely tattled as “dirty and air pollutant.” As chair of the committee on climate change and principal author of the “Climate Change Act of 2009” (Republic Act 9729), should she not sacrifice her personal political advantage in favor of better health for all Filipinos?
That’s a sweeping generalization arising from misinformation spread by so-called “cause-oriented” groups that coal is “hazardous.” The image they conjure is that of 19th-century trains run by coal-fueled steam engines.
Black smoke no longer billows out modern coal-fired power plants? Unconvinced? Then see the one owned by Panay Energy Development Corporation in Barangay Ingore, La Paz, Iloilo City.
The so-called clean-coal technology is not new. It was back in 1979 in Washington DC when pioneering scientists and engineers invented the “fluidized bed boiler” at Georgetown University. Primitive by today’s standards, that technology has evolved by leaps and bounds.
***
Condolences to the family of the late Leticia Clamor Jarumahum, 65, of Cabatuan, Iloilo, who returned to her Creator on Jan. 4, 2018. She is survived by her husband Rodolfo Sr. and children Rosalie, Ronel, Lovella, Lalaine, Liezel, Rhodora, Ruby, Rodolfo Jr., and Crystal Mae.
Her remains lie in state at St. Peter Funeral Homes (Room 204), Calajunan, Mandurriao, Iloilo City. She will be interred at the Cabatuan Cemetery on Monday (Jan. 15) at 2 p.m. after a funeral discourse at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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