THE LEGAL BATTLE TO CLAIM WHAT IS OURS BEGINS!

Today, lawyers who will represent me and former regional trial court judge Francis Palmones, Jr., will file a legal action called “intervention” to revive two cases involving our claim to the power produced by the Mt. Apo Geothermal Plant.

These two cases, the first of which was filed when I was Governor and the second by the incumbent Vice Mayor of Kidapawan City, sought to compel the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Power Corporation (NPC)-Transco and PNOC-EDC to first satisfy the power requirements of the Province of North Cotabato before supplying the excess power to other areas.

When I filed the legal action back when I was Governor, I cited two grounds, one is moral and the other is legal.

My moral argument was anchored on the fact that the Mt. Apo Geothermal Plant is located in Ilomavis, Kidapawan City and is therefore within the area of North Cotabato.

Why should the people of North Cotabato suffer from the lack of power when a facility which is right within its backyard is generating over 104megawatts of power?

The legal argument was based on an agreement signed prior to the construction of the Mindanao Geothermal Plant in Mt. Apo which required the DOE, NPC-TRANSCO and PNOC-EDC to ensure that sufficient power is guaranteed for the requirements of North Cotabato.

Unfortunately, the suit was dismissed and so was the legal action filed by Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista for grounds still unknown to me.

Yesterday, when I read the post of Alfred Martin who suggested that the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corporation (EDC) Mindanao Geothermal Plant should be asked to provide power for North Cotabato, I immediately consulted my lawyers and asked them to review legal steps which could be taken to compel them to end the brownouts in North Cotabato.

I immediately remembered the suit I filed and I asked my lawyers whether it could still be revived and whether I could file an intervention in the case filed by Vice Mayor Evangelista.

Former Judge Palmones, who is running for city councilor in Kidapawan now, immediately reviewed the case and consulted with our other lawyers.

The opinion suggested that I and Judge Palmones could file an intervention seeking to oppose the dismissal of the suit filed by Evangelista and also asking that the decision dismissing the same be reconsidered.

The legal battle starts today.

This is going to long and bloody, and expensive too, but I believe that this case is not only supported by legal basis but by moral and ethical reasons as well.

Charity begins at home, the saying goes.

How can OUR geothermal power plant, which was constructed sacrificing 701 hectares of virgin forests in Mt. Apo, generously supply power to other areas when the people of North Cotabato are suffering and crying in the dark.

Join me once again in this struggle to right a wrong and to give the people of North Cotabato what they really deserve.

(photo credit: this photo of the mt. apo geothermal plant was downloaded from the website of the energy development corporation.)