Ludo lays down plans, if power plant project gets City Hall nod
The proponent of the 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant promised to improve Barangay Sawang Calero and its neighboring barangays, if they get the approval of the Cebu City Government.
Ludo Power Corp. (LPC) said that it will repair and beautify the boardwalk, construct a 10-bed mini-hospital, establish a fire substation and provide street lighting in four barangays.
All of these will be provided by them for free.
The projects are on top of the college scholarships that the company will be providing to the residents of four barangays as part of its corporate social responsibility, said Nelson Yuvallos of LPC.
“The boardwalk alone will change the image of coastal barangays of the city like Pasil, Suba, Sawang Calero and Duljo-Fatima. It will create business opportunity for the residents and will change the image of these barangays,” he told SunStar Cebu in an interview.
The boardwalk, he said, can be an added attraction to the city since it will be facing the portion of Mactan Channel and the South Road Properties.
The boardwalk will cost LPC at least P50 million.
As to the mini-hospital, Yuvallos said that the LPC will still have to determine an area within the four barangays where it will be built.
Street lighting in Barangays Pasil, Suba, Sawang Calero and Duljo-Fatima will also be improved so that those who will visit the areas will feel safe.
Yuvallos said that the LPC is planning to talk with Mayor Tomas Osmeña to discuss the scholarship program, especially on the number of scholars that the company will sponsor.
Osmeña earlier wanted LPC to sponsor 4,000 scholars in four barangays and to grant them P40,000 per student every year.
Yuvallos said the company would like to have a compromise on the number of scholars since they also want the other projects to be implemented.
“We agreed that we will give out the scholarship; at the same time, LPC also wants to proceed with the other projects since we already promised it to the residents. When you promise something but you don't fulfill it, the people will get angry, so we will have a compromise,” he said.
But as to whether LPC gets the chance to implement these projects, the decision will be all up to Osmeña who recently expressed his opposition to the proposed coal-fired power plant.
Earlier, nearly 100 residents of Barangays Sawang Calero, Suba and Pasil and other supporters rally against the project.
Anti-coal plant groups, along with the residents who opposed the project, gathered in front of the old plant of LPC in Sawang Calero, with “no to coal” placards in their hands, showing their opposition to the project.