IP leader speaks about hydro development in the 1990s

Hedcor has sustained its good relationship with Municipality of La Trinidad since the 1990’s when it started building the Bineng cascading hydropower plants. 

Indeed, it was an unforgettable experience both to the stakeholders and to the company.

Pendon Thompson, one of the Barangay Officials then and an IP leader at present shares sentimental memories during the construction.  "The construction spurred economic activities in Bineng. The community was busy and full of life.

 Hedcor became the silent partner to our community, always lending a hand in creating Barangay Bineng a better place to live in," he says.

“Other companies will promise the moon and stars but they are all talk. With Hedcor it was a mutual beneficial relationship. They brought in their corporate social responsibility programs on top of the benefits mandated by law,” he added.

Hedcor is taking a significant step forward to increase the capacity of the existing Bineng cascading plants.

Named as Bineng Combined Hydroelectric Power Project, it will increase the current capacity of Bineng 1, Bineng 2 and Bineng 2b from 5.

48 megawatts to 19 megawatts.

The project is expected to generate an additional of 42 million kilowatt-hours therefore a total generation of 62 million kilowatt-hours annually.

Hedcor is currently processing its Free Prior Informed Consent with the National Commission on Indigenous People and various stakeholders. The project is expected to be online by 2018.

“True enough, we were naïve before, but still Hedcor never failed to serve as our partner in our community projects. They are always open to listen and resolve our issues,” he adds.

Under the new guidelines, Hedcor is conducting a domain-wide consultation to the indigenous people in the municipality.

Bineng Hydros were constructed in 1991. They are one of the first plants to be constructed by Hedcor in Benguet. They harness the water of Balili River which flows northward from Baguio City to La Trinidad.

Since water is the life of the hydropower plants, Hedcor upholds its mandate to keep the watershed healthy. To date Hedcor was able to free Balili River from 54 tons of waste collected from the river clean ups and ecomarket day programs. In La Trinidad alone, Hedcor recorded a total of 165, 096 trees planted mostly planted in Alno Communal Forest and other nearby barangays.