National Water Resource Board (NWRB) dismissed the protest on Hedcor’s water permit application for the use of the Tamugan River for a hydro electric plant, by the Davao City Water District. Shockingly along with that ruling was the decision of NWRB to declare DCWD’s permit of use on the Tamugan River as null and void.

This is but another chapter in the battle for the use of Tamugan river by the DCWD and Hedcor. DCWD wants to tap the river as a water source to supply the city of Davao while Hedcor wants to build a hydro electric power plant on the river. DCWD had prior approved rights to the river issued by NWRB and used this as one of their arguments for blocking Hedcor’s moves.
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Went to a local mall in Davao and saw that the Davao City Water District (DCWD) had set up a booth in a local SME event to bring forth their side of their opposition on the use of the Tamugan river for a hydro electric power plant by Hedcor Inc.
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Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), represented by Wilson Fortaleza, said that with the passage of the Electric Power Industry Act (EPIRA or Republic Act No. 9136), it hastened corporate control over the whole power system and results in “sweetheart deals” between energy distribution companies and power generation companies. This is because the law allows power distribution companies to own power generating companies.

The example he pointed out was that between Aboitiz subsidiaries Davao Light and Hedcor. Davao Light owns electricity distribution rights in Davao City, while Hedcor is into power generation.
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Environmentalist groups have said that the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued to Hedcor by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) was done in haste, without due diligence and lacking proper procedure.

They also said that its issuance was preceded by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s visit to their facility. The EMB admitted to this allegation, that their decision to issue ECC was also preceded by the visit of Pres. Arroyo to inaugurate the Sibulan hydroelectric power project of Hedcor.
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Some news on the Hedcor DCWD Tamugan River Row. In a press release. Dr. Maria Teresa Diokno-Pascual, professor of UP Diliman and an economist, said that there could be no statistical basis for a shortage of electricity in Mindanao if we base it on population growth alone. If that is so, then there is a need to prioritize the Tamugan-Panigan River to supply water to the people of Davao rather than building a Hydro Electric power plant.

However, if the economic agenda for Mindanao is mining and agribusiness, then this justifies the government’s reason to grant Hedcor’s request. Having said that, then Hedcor project should be a go because there are already a lot of mining projects in the offing for the island of Mindanao.
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The battle for use or joint use of the Tamugan river is getting preposterous as Davao City columnist Jun Ledesma points out. In the case of the Davao City Water Districts (DCWD) tactics that is
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