GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The provincial government of South Cotabato received the Allen S. Quimpo Climate Leadership for Governance Memorial Award following the Provincial Board’s rejection of a proposed large-scale coal mining project in the area.
Non-profit group Climate Reality Project Philippines (CRPP) conferred the award to the province on Monday night during the 2018 Climate Reality Leadership Awards held at the National Museum of Natural History in Manila.
According to the organizers, the award is given to local governments that are “committed to embrace renewable energy and is currently hosting renewable energy plants/farms in their localities.”
Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization founded by Nobel Laureate and former United States Vice President Al Gore.
Rodne R. Galicha, CRPP country manager, said the province was bestowed the award for “advancing climate action, rejecting coal and promoting renewable energy.”
He specifically cited the rejection by the Provincial Board in June this year of the proposed coal mining project of Daguma Agro-Minerals, Inc. (DAMI), a subsidiary of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., in Lake Sebu town.
Voting 6-4, the provincial legislators junked a proposed resolution granting favorable endorsement for the implementation of Coal Operating Contract No. 26 issued by the Department of Energy to DAMI.
The contract covers 126 hectares of land in Sitio El Dulog, Barangay Ned, Lake Sebu.
Board members Cecile Diel and Romulo Solivio, who opposed the passage of the resolution, received the award on behalf of the provincial government.
In her speech during the awarding ceremony, Diel recalled the intense and polarizing debates at the legislative body over the proposed coal mining project, which was openly backed by South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes.
“I am one of those who defied the governor’s campaign to endorse coal mining,” Diel recalled.
She said the issue created deep divisions within the Provincial Board and eventually forced her to break her alliance with the governor.
Diel, a provincial board member in the last 23 years, won in the May 2016 elections under the Nationalist People’s Coalition slate headed by Fuentes.
Seeking reelection in the 2019 polls as an independent candidate, Diel vowed to make the coal mining project “an election issue” in the campaign. (PNA)
