Gonzalez wants foreigners out of anti-coal plant campaign
JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez lashed at foreigners who joined protest actions against a proposed coal-fired power plant in this city.
“They should not interfere in our affairs. They should be stopped,” Gonzalez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
Gonzalez said he directed the regional office of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to investigate the papers of the foreigners and their involvement in protest actions against the coal plant.
The foreigners are members and volunteers of the environmental activist group Greenpeace who have been here since June 7 as part of an international campaign against coal-fired power plants.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Jasper Inventor earlier said it was within the authority of the BI to inspect the ship and its crew and to verify their papers.
“But we hope this is not meant to pressure us and Greenpeace activists from other countries to stop our protest against the project,” said Inventor in an earlier interview.
Greenpeace is an international organization that works for environmental conservation and the preservation of endangered species.
The group along with local environmental and church groups held a three-day protest in La Paz District here until Monday. They erected a 20-foot portable tower and unfurled streamers and banners against the project inside the 40-hectare property of the Panay Power Corp. (PPC).
Activists strapped themselves to the tower and refused to leave until the project was shelved. But barangay (village) officials and residents supporting the project threatened to forcibly remove the structure if the protesters refused to leave.
PPC and the Metrobank subsidiary Global Business Power Corp (GBPC) have proposed the construction of a 164-megawat coal-fired plant in Iloilo City.
Greenpeace on Monday also dumped 20 sacks of charcoal in front of a Metrobank branch here to protest the proposed coal-fired power plant project.
Gonzalez said the group committed “vandalism” and could be sued by the bank.
BI regional director Francisco Artuz inspected on Sunday the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which was anchored near the shores of Barangay Ingore, to check whether members of the ship’s crew violated regulations and laws governing foreigners.
Foreign crewmembers who violate regulations are liable for deportation, according to Artuz.
Rainbow Warrior has 12 crewmembers, 10 of them foreigners, and has 15 guests onboard.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said that “if needed,” the city government would initiate a complaint against the foreigners before the BI.
“They can say their piece but there is a limit to what foreigners can do in other countries. They should go to the US where there are more coal plants than in any other place in the world,” said Treñas in a telephone interview.
Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Philippine Daily Inquirer
Leave a Reply