‘Casecnan 38 kms away from fault’

The Casecnan multi-purpose project is 38 kilometers away from the nearest seismic fault and is in no danger of collapsing from an earthquake, a top official of the CE Casecnan Power and Water Co. told the Senate Blue Ribbon committee the other day.

David Baldwin, president of the firm, said a certification from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology showed that the Digdig Fault is 38 kilometers away from the project site and will not affect the 50-year operating life of the Casecnan plant.

Baldwin was reacting to the concern of Sen. Roberto Barbers that the collapse of a tunnel shaft in December 2001 was caused by a geologic fault.

Baldwin said the collapse, which resulted in a six-month delay of the project, was due to the fault of the contractor and not to any geologic fault.

During the same hearing, Baldwin insisted that the peak power rate being charged by Casecnan is only P1.80 per kilowatt-hour and not P8.58 as calculated by Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, nor more than P9 as claimed by an inter-agency committee headed by Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Dante Canlas.

Baldwin said the correct calculation of the power rate should take into consideration the useful life of the power plant, which is 50 years or 30 years after the plant shall have been fully paid for.

He insisted that it is incorrect to use the life of the contract, 20 years, as basis for calculating the cost of the power component of the multipurpose project.