KIBUNGAN, Benguet – Alarmed indigenous peoples (IP) leaders in this municipality expressed confusion which among the proponents of two hydropower projects in the jurisdiction of Kibungan and Kapangan are telling the truth about the actual status of their projects and their capacity to implement multi-billion projects supposed to benefit the host and neighboring communities.
Reliable IP leaders from various barangays raised concern over the alleged misinformation being done by Coheco Badeo Corporation which is intending to put up a 500-megawatt pump storage project in Badeo because company officials had been reportedly declaring in their purported information and education campaign activities that their project will be the one to be implemented first prior to that of the 60-megawatt run-off-river hydro project of the Cordillera Hydroelectric Development Corporation (COHECO) which plans to up the facility in Cuba, Kapangan.
Further, the concerned IP leaders claimed officials of the Coheco Badeo Corporation deliberately used the name Coheco which is similar to the acronym of the power company intending to operate in Kapangan purposely to make it appear that the power company is similar to the earlier company that the IPs endorsed so that they can easily get their free and prior informed consent when in fact the two companies are different from each other.
The IP leaders also cast doubt on the capacity of the incorporators of the Coheco Badeo Corporation to bankroll a P35 billion project because its incumbent Korean principal, Larry Howon Kim was the original incorporator of COHECO 60 but because he was not capable of fund the whole project in Kapangan valued at P10 billion, he sold COHECO 60 and the consent of Kibungan and Kapangan IPs to a Filipino businessman who had the resources to fund the project in Kapangan.
Because the combined assets of the incorporators of Coheco Badeo Corporation is not enough to fund the P35 billion pump storage project, the IP leaders believe Mr. Kim will again sell the company and the consent of the Kibungan IPs and cart away billions of pesos without the IPs gaining a single centavo from the sale similar to what happened when he sold COHECO 60 to a responsible Filipino investor.
According to them, the previous pronouncements of Coheco Badeo Corporation officials that their project might be implemented ahead of the COHECO 60 project in Kapangan is actually trying to cover up their plan to again sell the company to other investors even without the knowledge of the IPs, thus, IPs in Kibungan and neighboring communities must be careful in falling into the trap being employed by the embattled company which is represented by a former Capitol employee without sufficient assets to fund the project.
Earlier, COHECO 60 officials and other Kibungan and Kapanggan municipal officials joined hands in breaking ground for the construction of the 27-kilometer road from Cuba, Kapangan toBadeo, Kibungan which is part of the company’s commitment to the IPs when they gave their consent for its 60-megawatt project which means that the ground works for the full blast construction of the project are underway contrary to the misinformation being waged by their rival company.
By HENT
