LIMAY, Bataan — Some members of the Coal-Free Bataan Movement (CFBM) and residents, including children, in black shirts and masks on Saturday staged a protest against the operation of two coal power plants in a village here.
Carrying placards, the protesters silently lined up at the side of the road fronting the compound of the two coal power plants in Sitio Carbon, Barangay Lamao.
Alvin Pura, CFBM spokesman, called their mass action as Climate Change Advocacies Black Saturday Protest to condemn the alleged violations of the plants.
Kilusang Pambansang Demokratiko–Bataan said operating at the compound of the oil refinery are Petron’s 140-megawatt coal power plant and the 600-MGW coal power plant of San Miguel Corp.-Global.
“Gagawin namin ito tuwing Saturday. Tinatawag namin itong Climate Change Advocacies Black Saturday Protest dahil sa dalawang planta na nalalanghap ang masamang amoy ng mga komunidad lalo ang malalapit sa planta,” Pura said.
He vowed that they will conduct the protest while no action is being done and to show that they do not like the two plants.
When Taal Volcano erupted last January and spewed ashes, he said that many people were in panic. “Pero dito sa Bataan araw-araw naming nalalanghap ang abo,” Pura said.
He cited as example the ashfall they experienced January 24 – 28, 2020 that he said they were like in Saudi, apparently referring to the desert sand.
“Hindi lang ang abo kundi ang ingay din ng dalawang planta. Dahil wala silang ginagawang aksiyon, napag-usapan namin na gawin na ang protesta tuwing Sabado para maipakita namin ang pagkondena sa dalawang planta,” Pura said.
“Itigil ang coal, mabaho ang amoy,” said a man in wheelchair and oxygen mask and a woman with a nebulizer.
Nelgie Santos said that she was confined for asthma and that when she was already a week in the hospital, she asked the doctor if she could already be discharged: “Sabi ng duktor, papayagan akong umuwi pero huwag daw akong umuwi sa amin dahil may pollution at dilikado lugar namin.”
She said she resides in Sitio Pex in Lamao that only a concrete wall separates it from the coal plant. She claimed she got her asthma when she started living in Pex for about two years already.
