Environmental advocates seeking to save Negros Oriental’s last remaining forest cover on Mt. Talinis have met top executives of the Energy Development Corp.and their parent company First Philippine Holdings, at the sidelines of Friday’s Energy Summit at the Bethel Guest House.
Romualdo Seneris, Negros Oriental coordinator of the Visayan Forum, Pol Carino, vice president of the Association of Biodiversity of the Philippines, and Diocesan Social Action Director Fr. Burton Villarmea engaged EDC President Richard Tantoco and First Philippine Holdings Chief Sustainability Officer Agnes de Jesus in a huddle to follow-up on their discussion during the open forum.
Tantoco assured the environmentalists that he will furnish them in two weeks a copy of the Environmental Impact Assessment, which they had been requesting for in previous public fora.
Both sides agreed to become actively involved in a multipartite monitoring body through the Integrated Water Resources Management Program which was ordered activated by Gov. Roel Degamo.
Degamo, during the Power Summit, had given his assurances of his commitment to preserve the Mt. Talinis forest.
De Jesus later said their discussion with the environmentalists was “a good start.”
Carino, in a social media post, said the EDC executives ably shared very informative answers to their queries, and reassuring commitments to the environmental concerns of the company.