Hedcor not interested in water-supply trade

POWER-GENERATING company Hedcor, Inc. is not at all interested in running a water supply business much like that of the Davao City Water District, even if it practically has full control over the Tamugan River with the annulment by the National Water Resources Board of DCWD’s water permit.
“Our business is hydropower generation and we have existed as a power company since the company was organized in the 70s,” Hedcor president Rene Ronquillo said. Hedcor has been accused by cause-oriented groups of having sinister designs on DCWD’s business that’s why it has insisted on applying for a permit to use the Tamugan River.
“If you look at our water permit, it is solely for hydropower purposes and we cannot use it for domestic purposes like DCWD,” he said. It took almost two years to get this decision from NWRB, he added, and “we cannot just change the terms of our permit all of a sudden.”
Ronquillo said using the Tamugan River for purposes other than for hydropower generation would mean applying for a new permit which would again take years to get if it does get approved.
“Neither Hedcor nor Aboitiz is interested in any water distribution business,” he said.  “The sole reason why we want to develop the Tamugan River is because of their existing contract to sell power to the Davao Light and Power Company.
Contrary to what people are saying, he said, they have not started work on the Tamugan project. It is against the law, he said, and we would not risk a big investment like this and start working on it without permits.
Ronquillo said Hedcor has spent P70 million more or less for the permit applications and engineering works of the Tamugan project.  The company wanted to start the project June 2008, he added, but the permit from NWRB came only a year after.
Hedcor’s Tamugan Hydropower project may have been delayed for more than a year now, he said, but they have not really incurred any losses since he said “this is what you normally spend for a hydropower plant of this size.”
He said they pulled out their engineering people in November last year and they are now working on other Hedcor projects in Benguet.
Ronquillo admitted the delay in the project implementation is even favorable to Hedcor since the cost of steel two years ago was $600 per ton. The price of steel went up to $1,300 per ton last year and has now gone back to the $600 per ton rate. [Lovely A. Carillo]