By Malu Manar KIDAPAWAN CITY (Nov 3) -- The Energy Development Corporation (EDC), the country's sole producer of geothermal energy, has dispelled claims their geothermal production in Mount Apo caused the recent earthquakes here, or could trigger volcanic eruption. In a press statement issued to media on Sunday, Romy Kee, head of the EDC's Mount Apo Geothermal Project (MAGP) facility, has quoted studies made by scientists that no man-made activity can cause a volcanic eruption. "Only a change in chemistry, pressure and temperature can cause a volcanic eruption," Kee explained. Kee added that seismicity in each EDC geothermal site, including MAGP, is being monitored by seismic instruments that they have installed, in partnership with a network of monitoring instruments of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), since the country is prone to earthquakes. "The recent movements in Mindanao all have epicenters south of Kidapawan City and none are within our project site. To date, we have not affected the seismicity of the area two decades since we have started operating MAGP," he said. Phivolcs director Renato Solidum has already confirmed in his media interviews that the series of tremors that hit the area, as well as other parts of Mindanao since October 16, was caused by the Cotabato fault system and were tectonic in origin. Netizens posted on their Facebook accounts photos of sulfur coming out from land cracks, creeks, and streams. A certain Marilyn, an FB user, showed photos of a crack in the soil in Barangay Kayaga, Kabacan, and another netizen reported on his wall sulfur coming out from a river in Barangay Luayon in Makilala. Datu Tungko Saikol of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said the sulfur was a mineral that usually comes out from the depth of the soil when there is an activity, like an earthquake. Experts called the process as "liquefaction", he said. "This is just a normal thing. There is no cause for alarm," he stressed. Saikol said the EDC has not violated any environmental law or orders from the government since its operations that started, more than two decades ago.