HAVE PITY ON US!: They tell us that the many independent power producers (IPPs) feeding the Luzon grid of the National Power Corp. actually have excess capacity and that they have to operate below their rated capability.

With that unused surplus (which we captive consumers pay for anyway), why is the government still allowing the putting up of additional coal-fired plants that are not only unnecessary but also sure to add more lethal waste elements in the air we breathe?

A case in point is a proposed coal-fired plant in our town of Mabalacat, situated at the end of the North Luzon Expressway in Pampanga right in the midst of so much excess power in the Napocor grid.

As that proposed power generator is redundant and pollutive, one wonders what motivated Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez — who claims to be an environmentalist — to give it his green clearance.

We refuse to believe that Secretary Alvarez has a special loathing for us residents of Mabalacat, especially the lahar-resettled villages like Madapdap near the plant, and desires to succeed where Mt. Pinatubo failed.

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ALVAREZ MISINFORMED: If a firm needs lots of electricity, it can connect directly to the Napocor grid without passing through the local electric cooperatives. Many firms with big power requirements — and with the big difference of a Social Conscience — have done that with satisfactory results.

Of course there is money in putting up a full-blown power plant, but the fat earnings from the attendant transactions are not enough justification for inflicting the curse of cumulative pollution on the surrounding community.

We were told, however, that all is not lost. Somebody whispered to us yesterday that Secretary Alvarez was just grossly misinformed about the project and may have been influenced by the names of some “media moguls” being dropped.

However, if the Secretary is already compromised, then Energy Secretary Vincent Perez can still save the day for the people of Mabalacat, Magalang, Bamban (Tarlac) and nearby towns that would be exposed to the noxious emissions and effluents of the proposed coal plant.

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FORMOSA RECORD: After we pointed out that problem in our hometown, Red Constantino of Greenpeace contributed additional data on the project. He said in an email:

“Another interesting issue here is that the proponent, Formosa Plastics, is no clean green saint by any stretch of the imagination. Formosa is a notorious net exporter of hazardous waste. It was recently defeated previously by US community resisters when Formosa attempted to export mercury waste from their Taiwan plant to ‘a dumpsite near the Latino community of Westmorland in Southern California, then to the US Ecology dumpsite in Nevada, next to a dump in Idaho, to a waste disposal facility near a small town in France, a disposal firm in Germany, and once again to Nevada. In every case, citizen action caused the waste disposal plans or contracts to be rejected, forcing FPG to finally accede to environmentalist demands.’

“The demand that Formosa ‘take responsibility for its own waste at its corporate site in Taiwan rather than export their problems’ was called for by environmentalists around the world following Formosa’s scandalous export of its waste to the impoverished and war-torn country of Cambodia. The illegal Cambodian dumping led to the deaths of seven persons.”

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ALVAREZ VS. ATIENZA: Secretary Alvarez has another fight looming against Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, with whom he once tangled over hizzoner’s conversion of the historic Mehan Gardens near City Hall into an ugly parking building.

This time, the casus belli, is the Arroceros Forest Park at the foot of Quezon bridge that the mayor wants as site for office buildings of the City Schools Division. The nine-year-old forest glade is the only bird watching site in the heart of Manila.

The Winner Foundation, its custodian and preserver, is set to cement in a ceremony this morning a partnership with Luntiang Pilipinas Foundation Inc., a tree-planting group headed by Sen. Loren Legarda. Secretary Alvarez will lead the tree-planting part of the program with a donation of 25 new species.

In an agreement signed in November 1993, care of the 2.1-hectare property was entrusted by then Mayor Alfredo Lim to the foundation, represented by its president, Lourdes Evangelista. Then First Lady Amelita Ramos was and continues to be honorary chair of the foundation.

Some 3,500 trees have been planted there in the last eight years. Some of the original species on the site are over a century old, including balete, kamagong, and India rubber trees.

Members of the Haribon Society have recorded several species of birds, including the Long Tailed Shrike, Brown Shrike, Zebra Dove, Pherfic Swallow, Yellow Vented Bulbul, and Pied Fantale.