Request to Help Endangered Children in the Philippines
20 October 1999
James Wolfensohn
President
International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development
World Bank
1818 H Street, NW,
Washington, DC 10433
U.S.A.
Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,
Your commitment, as widely reported, to counter corruption in the implementation of projects funded by World Bank loans has given thousands hope that the power and prestige of your office and that of the Bank would become a force for good in the world and put right the many wrongs committed by the recipients and clients of the World Bank.
I ask you to help protect the PREDA Children’s Home at Kalaklan, Olongapo City, Philippines from the electromagnetic radiation from electric power cables erected in 1996 by your clients, the city government of Olongapo and the National Power Corporation (NPC).
At first, the NPC agreed to route the 230KV cables away from the Children’s Home (at lower cost too) but later changed the plan to accommodate the family of the city mayor and instead the NPC diverted the cables away from their private property by erecting another pylon.
The World Bank office in Manila has claimed that there is no danger to the children from the cables but never explained why the mayor and her family had the cables diverted from their private houses. The bank officials also claimed that the Bank did not fund that portion of the project. But these two entities are long standing clients of the Bank.
The evidence of alleged corrupt practice.
Not only did the local political family of the city benefit personally by ordering the power company to erect an extra pylon at government cost but the project is over designed and overpriced. The NPC erected pylons and cables for a 230 KV line but the power grid only uses a smaller 69KV line according to NPC’s own admission during a Phillippine congressional hearing. Besides, there has been, and still is, another existing 69KV line feeding the same destination, this follows a direct and shorter route. The project was probably a white elephant, unnecessary in the first place.
THE World Bank has given huge loans to the Philippine National Power Corporation and the City of Olongapo over the years and is still granting more. I ask you on behalf of thousands of concerned supporters and the children, to review the implementation of this project, and we ask you to please express your strongest recommendation to your Manila Office that the cables be diverted away from the Children’s Home by relocating one pylon.
This will give NPC a surplus of two pylons because it will be direct and shorter route close to the route of the existing 69KV line. The savings gained from the two surplus pylons should be sufficient to cover the costs of rerouting the dangerous pylon along the route away from the Children’s Home.
It is not much to ask, and I hope it is not beyond the authority and influence of your office. We trust that you will act for justice for the sake of the children.
Sincerely,
Father Shay Cullen, Mssc.
Executive Director and President
PREDA Foundation, Inc.
