FOLLOWING the consensus of both Hedcor Inc. and Kesbeng residents in Barangay Poblacion, La Trinidad, Benguet, blasting activities at the construction site of the 19-megawatt (MW) La Trinidad Hydro Power project in the area will be toned down.
Bill Haboc, assistant vice president for Business, Community and Government Relations of Hedcor, relayed to residents during a dialogue initiated by the company of stricter implementation of the blasting activity in the area.
“We will follow proper blasting, to clear issues. Prior to blasting, there were really lapses of blasting implemented by the contractor so we will address the matter. We will tell them to abide by proper methods of blasting, if they are going to push for uncontrolled blasting, we are going to stop blasting,” he said.
The facility is for Hedcor Inc., a subsidiary of Aboitiz, which owns and manages 21 run-of-river hydropower plants in the country with a total capacity of 245 MW of clean and renewable energy including the 19-MW La Trinidad Hydro.
The 19-M run-of-river hydropower technology is expected to generate 62 million kilowatt-hours annually, utilizing the Balili River and is targeted to be completed by June 2019.
Village chief Manuel Maslag of Poblacion who was with the United Neighborhood Association of Kesbeng during the dialogue lamented blasting activities occur 6 p.m. beyond the scheduled 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The barangay official said there are at least 300 residential houses within the area.
Since February a request was also made seeking the company to use a less disruptive method.
“As of now, there is still no concrete answer in the recent dialogue with Hedcor,” stated Maslag, adding an inspection of damages will be done to assess possible damages of houses.