Kalinga's Geothermal power project exploration continue

TABUK,Kalinga- Kalinga's Geothermal Power Project exploration continues for 10 ancestral domains in the province.

The project is a consortium between private companies Aragon Power and Energy Corporation, Guidance Management Corp., and Allfirst Kalinga Ltd.

Attorney Catherine Gayagay Apaling, provincial officer of National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Kalinga said the area for geothermal covers 11 sub-tribes with only 10 ancestral domain giving their consent for the exploration.

"They are on the exploration drillings, however they are in the stage of preparing the wellpad 1 and preparation of the construction of access road network," Apaling said.

A Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) was finished sometime in 2009 following a memorandum of agreement and the start of the exploration. Prior to the MOA, she added geothermal scholarship in geology, medicine and engineering were awarded, and some graduate grantees were hired as geologists for the project.

Other provisions of the MOA include community development projects (CDP) implemented simultaneously in the community. Instead of the proponent doing CDP, this was given directly to the community for its implementation.

The proponents has been conducting for the past two years FPIC.

"Until this period kahit implementation of exploration, continuous pa rin iyong negotiation with the communities because every now and then they want to be part of what is happening in their domain," she added.

With more than seven years of exploration period, the NCIP official added there are no reports of damage from the community's domain.

The Geothermal project's projected capacity is hoped to be more than 100 megawatts.