Several friends have asked me to share my notes on last Tuesdays provl board session, particularly the Q&A with officials of the Western Phils State University. I posted a summary earlier and some readers apparently got curious what really happened. I thought what transpired wasnt something I would see in a press release of the PIO because it has to go with a heading sort of like Anti-Coal University Officials Turn the Tables on Pro Coal Board. So here goes, upon that request. First, some background and context. The provincial board had endorsed the Coal plant of DMCI in Aborlan and no less than the governor is now its chief campaigner. Capitol says the province needs power badly and immediately. Problem is Aborlan residents have opposed the 15MW coal plant and they got the RTC to issue a temporary environmental protection order against DMCI and Paleco. If Aborlan doesnt change its stand, DMCI will have to pack up and find another site . I know they have been reconsidering Narra where they had been rejected already. The anti coal lobby is a gritty bunch. In Aborlan it is not just several faculty but the university itself which had formally declared its opposition. The plant, after all, is to be put up right next to their campus. Their stance apparently pissed off the governor who declared to everyones shock that he will withdraw the scholarship of some 2,000 WPU students. So that on Tuesday, the gallery of the legislative session hall was packed with students and several parents. They had filed a petition to probe WPU for allegedly coercing students to join anti-coal rallies in Aborlan. The two themes in their petition were coercion and teaching of wrong knowledge. The second theme was premised on the assertion proclaimed by BM Al Rama (from Aborlan himself) that there is clean coal and that WPU was not being honest to its students. I found myself sitting in the middle of the Aborlan delegation who had overrun the media gallery. The students next to me casually said that they came on two mini buses provided by the provincial government. Board Member Al Rama had his hands full multi tasking as majority floorleader and a sort of floor director to the Aborlan delegation. He would shuttle between his podium and the gallery to give instructions who among the crowd will speak next and about what point. They seem to have been coached like who will speak and who will heckle and clap. WPU President Dr. Elsa Manarpaac and College Dean Dr. Lita Sopson, as well as the student regent, spoke to articulate the universitys anti-coal stance. Al Rama was proud of his own presentation asserting clean coal. After their respective spiels, the board did not conclude what its stand was. Of course they already endorsed the coal plant way before this debate was even called. I thought it was funny when Dr. Manarpaac asked the board twice why they endorsed the coal plant without even asking DMCI to submit a project description. It was like dropping two mini bombs in the session floor and the board members just hid in their trenches. One awkward moment was when the designated spokesperson of the parents was asked what they wanted to achieve in coming to the session, and he said that they want the scholarship of their students reinstated. It was a demand addressed to the Governor but had an effect like another mini bomb dropped on capitol grounds. I was feeling sad for my kumpadre the Vice Governor who was presiding over the carnage and I didnt want to miss my lunch so I decided to leave. I knew my other media colleagues who stayed had a hard time finding a story angle.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:58:41 +0000