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US power firm donates P6M to Vizcaya calamity victims

By CHARLIE C. LAGASCA

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya - A US power firm, which owns and operates the Casecnan multipurpose irrigation and power facility, has donated earlier this week financial assistance to augment the province’s calamity fund.

The provincial government yesterday said that the P6-million fund assistance given by the California Energy (CE), through its local subsidiary, the Casecnan Water and Energy Company, Inc. (CECWECI), will be intended for victims from previous typhoons and other calamities.

According to CE-CECWECI president Joseph Lee Sullivan, who handed the amount in check to Gov. Luisa Cuaresma in Monday’s brief rites, which were also witnessed by other local officials led by Vice Gov. Jose Gambito, such a gesture was part of their firm’s social corporate responsibility to needy communities, especially to where their firm operates.

“(Ours is not only about) irrigation and power generation. (Providing assistance to needy communities) is one of our commitments and we will continue to do so for the duration of the project,” he said.

For the last ten years, CE’s Casecnan project has been providing irrigation waters to some 400,000 hectares of farmlands in Nueva Ecija and parts of Pangasinan through a 30-kilometer diversion weirs from the rivers of Alfonso Castaneda town here to the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija.

Constructed during the Ramos administration under a 20-year build-operate transfer deal, the Casecnan dam also contributes at least 60 megawatts of power for the Luzon grid.

Cuaresma said that the funds given by the firm will be deposited as trust fund to augment the provincial government’s calamity assistance fund.

“We are happy that our constituents outside of the (Casecnan project’s) impact zone can also benefit from the firm,” Cuaresma said.

Last year, Cal-Energy also paid some P750 million as part of its real property tax due this province in connection with the operations of its Casecnan project.

Cuaresma said that part of the amount is being utilized as special education fund for the province, especially in areas which are part of the Casecnan project’s impact zone.

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