by Dong de los Reyes September 22, 2021 TIAONG, Quezon - In November 2020, water districts of San Pablo City, Laguna and Dolores, Quezon awa...
September 22, 2021
TIAONG, Quezon - In November 2020, water districts of San Pablo City, Laguna and Dolores, Quezon awarded a P103-million water utilities project to a consortium led by a firm owned by Dennis Uy, a close friend of incumbent President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Uy's Udenna Water Integrated, Inc. plans to fit out the Lumbo Spring Bulk Water Supply Project via a public-private partnership scheme. The Uy-led consortium is tasked to construct a facility to draw some 12 million liters of water daily from Lumbo Spring in Dolores, Quezon. The water will be piped and sold to San Pablo City households and establishments.
Earlier in March 2020, Uy's Udenna clinched a 45% controlling interest in the Malampaya-Camago gas field in offshore Palawan. By July, a Senate hearing to thresh out points in the highly suspicious acquisition had lawmakers' jaws dropping in disbelief--Udenna's unit Malampaya Energy XP Pte. Ltd.— the winning bidder for the purchase of Shell Philippines Exploration's 45% operating stake in Malampaya gas field— has a capital of only $100.
The Malampaya-Camago purchase agreement was pegged at $460 million.
Comes now a P103-million deal with the Dolores-San Pablo water districts that hardly went through any cursory probe by local lawmakers and LGU heads if the Udenna outfit can muster the monies to fit out a water utilities facility.
While the Camago-Malampaya natural gas project went through the wringer to ply out an Environment Impact Statement (EIS) and an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), the Lumbo project hasn't any to address concerns of local stakeholders that are to be direly affected by the Udenna scheme.
Already, Lumbo spring downstream LGUs and government agencies have sounded warnings about the ruinous impact of the project on a few thousand hectares of rice paddies and croplands watered by the extensive stretch of rivers fed by Lumbo Spring, citing threats to food security, food shortages to the region and beyond, and loss of livelihood in families dependent on the Lumbo spring-fed waterways and tributaries.
“The Lumbo Spring construction project will gravely affect the water supply and irrigation for rice fields around Quezon province, and will only benefit a few sectors at the expense of people living in downstream communities. We cannot allow such a self-serving project to push through especially if it has not gone through the proper procedures and public consultations with the downstream users especially since it has not been granted an ECC by the DENR-EMB,” reiterated the local people's organization Mamamayan Para sa Kapakanan ng Kalikasan ng Bukal ng Lumbo, or Mapakalikasan.
Several hundreds of farmers and residents affected by the Udenna project formed Mapakalikasan to voice out their opposition, and rally other concerned sectors to protest against the Uy scheme.
The group added that Mapakalikasan seeks to ensure that Lumbo Spring and its surrounding environment are protected against abusive and destructive practices, for the benefit of future generations.
The contest of wills between common people and hefty profits has hardly started--but contractors of the Uy outfit are already at it, flouting environmental rules and laws, probably flaunting connections with the powers-that-be by conducting construction and clearing activities "even without applying for an ECC or the necessary local government permits; and without consultation with the downstream stakeholders such as farmers and irrigators who will be most affected by this project..
“This constitutes a clear violation of Philippine regulatory and environmental laws,” Mapakalikasan said.
In a position paper, the National Irrigation Administration Region IV-A (NIA) cited the “clear threat of irrigation water shortage due to the increasing number of water users both for domestic and agricultural use. The SPCWD-DWD proposed water project and the continuous decrease of water discharge will jeopardize the government’s thrust towards food security and will decrease farmers’ potential income.”
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