A complaint against a Victorias Milling Company-owned alcohol distillery in Barangay Purisima, Manapla has reached the Office of the President but residents were quick to deny they were behind it, claiming “we were tricked” into signing the supposed petition against the plant.
They cried foul of being dragged into the issue that calls for to the closure of the distillery owned by the VMC.
Some groups, they told reporters, asked them to sign an attendance sheet that was later used in a petition against the firm.
Barangay Purisima residents, whose names appeared in the petition, clarified that they are not opposing the plant’s operation, nor calling for its closure.
The paper they signed on, they continued, was supposedly for the acknowledgment of the rice subsidy they had received.
Others insisted their signatures were forged.
Allegations for violation of the Clean Air Act or Republic Act 8749 and the Clean Water Act, or R.A. 9275, were hurled against the VMC-operated plant.
During the Nov. 10 dialog at the Barangay Purisima covered court that was attended by town Mayor Manolet Escalante, village residents took turns in clearing their names.
Julius Caesar Cañete claimed that he was made to affix his signature by a barangay leader on a blank sheet to prove that he is a resident of the place.
Another resident, Angela Detosil Jomamoy, also expressed surprise when she found her name in the same document without being properly informed.
“My signature was forged,” she said.
Cañete and Jomamoy were among the more than a hundred of village folk, who complained before the barangay that they have nothing to do with the alleged petition that already reached the Office of the President and the Ombudsman.
Escalante said that he issued a business permit to the VMC Distillery Plant, because they have complied with the necessary requirements for its operation.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources also issued the plant with waste water discharge permit, while the Department of Agriculture also granted the company a certificate for safe re-use of the waste water.
Escalante, however, said that the permit can be revoked anytime if there is a violation.
At the same time, he also lauded the effort of the VMC to address the environmental concerns of the residents.
VMC took over the management of the alcohol distillery in 2011.
Escalante disclosed that a multi-partite monitoring team has been formed to monitor closely the impact of its operations to the environment and the community.
Engr. Sherwin Bacanto, the plant manager, said that the firm has poured in more than P200 million in terms of investments to address environmental concerns previously raised by residents.
The plant was shut down from June to August to address the foul odor issue raised by barangay residents, Bacanto said.
He disclosed that adjustments and improvements, as well as tune up of the treatment plant were conducted in September to resolve the issues raised by the community.
“We did everything with all our resources, to address the issue (on foul odor),” he added.
He also claimed during the dialog that the alcohol distillery operation is no longer connected with any body of water or natural lagoon or creek in the area.
Bacanto also said that they have already completed what he called as “world-class design vacuum distillation” that reduces slops by-product volume from distillation process, by 33 percent.
He added that the newly-completed anaerobic digester is the first stage in the distillery’s wastewater treatment.
The waste is being converted into organic liquid fertilizer. He said the plant produces 600 cubic meters of treated waste water a day.
Asked when the development is expected to be completed, Bacanto said that the phase 1 for environment concerns is almost done, while the rehabilitation of the natural lagoon that was used by the previous management is expected to be completed within a six-month period.
The lagoon, once it is rehabilitated, will be converted into a fishpond, Bacanto said.
Barangay Purisima residents said there is no foul odor emanating from the plant since the operation stopped for months.-GPB
