La Trinidad, Benguet—The Regional Trial Court, Branch 63, here denied on Nov. 14, 2017 the motion seeking reconsideration of the denial of Hedcor’s plea to bar BENECO from interfering in its (Hedcor’s) effort to seek the Kabayan folk’s free and prior informed consent to develop a hydropower project in Kabayan, Benguet.
Hedcor Kabayan, Inc. is a company of the Aboitiz group and is involved in the development of hydropower projects in Benguet, Mountain Province and in other parts of the country. Its latest initiative is to exploit the water resources of Kabayan through a hydropower project which is the subject of a contract it signed with the Philippine government through the Department of Energy.
According to Hedcor, by virtue of said contract, it is protected under the law to seek the free and prior informed consent to the project of the affected people of Kabayan, Benguet without any interference from BENECO, the Benguet Electric Cooperative.
The court earlier denied the plea of Hedcor and so it filed a motion for the reconsideration thereof which, obviously, is in preparation for bringing the matter to the higher courts such as the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court in an effort to try to seek a reversal of its fortunes regarding the Kabayan project.
In the earlier ruling of the court, it declared that the indigenous peoples of Kabayan have all the right to seek all possible options that might be offered by any party so they could choose the best option available to them.
Basically, the motion for reconsideration is a reiteration of Hedcor’s arguments in the first instance. That its initiative to get the consent of the Kabayan people must not be interfered with by BENECO and this can only be assured if a court order or a writ is issued ensuring such.
In the latest ruling of the court, it said, “Foremost, Section 20 (of the implementing guidelines of the Indegenous Peoples’ Rights Act) provides that the FPIC process is a right particularly conferred to all ICCs/IPs who are owners of the ancestral domain. Catergorically, such right was not waived or transferred to HEDCOR who can claim exclusivity in its exercise.
“Second. The right of the ICCs/IPs to exercise the FPIC process is consistent with Sections 2 and 3 of the GUIDELINES that recognizes the right of the ICCs/IPs to self-determinataion, self-governance and empowerment, all in keeping with their right to determine which among several offers works best for them.”
For clarity, ICCs refers to indigenous cultural communities while IPs refers to indigenous Peoples and FPIC refers to free and prior informed consent.
So for this round of the rush between BENECO and Hedcor for the exploitation of the water resources of Kabayan, the former is in a better position. But the race between the two has just started. The result of any move of Hedcor in the higher courts will be greatly anticipated. **
