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First Posted on Inside Mindanao (www.insidemindanao.com) on June 17, 2009

We are not invisible. We oppose the bio–ethanol plant
By Ellen Red

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Beth Pua Villamor, a resident of barangay Bayanga in this city, writing as a "citizen journalist" belies the local newspaper report that residents in barangays Bayanga and Mambuaya in this city are in unison in expressing unequivocal support to the proposed Alson Corporation's bio–ethanol plant.

"I am writing as a 'citizen journalist' to raise the injustice done to me and to thousands of residents in barangays Bayanga and Mambuaya who are opposed to the bio–ethanol processing plant to be built by Alsons Corporation," Ms. Villamor said in a letter to the local newspaper.

She said it is not true that residents in Bayanga and Mambuaya are united in supporting the proposed Alson Corporation's bio–ethanol plant as many are opposed to the plan due to environmental hazards.

During the public consultation held in January 2009 on the proposed Alson Corporation's bio–ethanol plant, Ms. Villamor reported that 450 residents of barangay Bayanga, through a petition, expressed their opposition to the proposed plant. Copy of the opposition petition, she said, was given to the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Some residents again expressed their opposition during the Alson's "tell the public" forum sponsored by the Archdiocese last April 2009, Ms. Villamor reported.

The local newspaper GoldStar Daily reported that "residents in Bayanga and Mambuaya were in unison in expressing unequivocal support to Alson's bio–ethanol plant."

Alson Corporation proposed to operate a P200–million bio–ethanol plant within a 17–hectare area in the adjoining barangays of Bayanga and Mambuaya.

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