Power summit set in Davao

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino will preside over the Mindanao Power Summit in Davao City on Friday to discuss with local stakeholders how they want to address the energy crisis in Mindanao.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the conference will start at 9 a.m. at the Waterfront Hotel. It will be attended by key officials including Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) chairperson Lou Antonino.

Lacierda belied insinuations that the scheduled Energy Summit is merely a moro-moro, or stage-managed, pointing out that Minda has been in charge of the summit mechanics.

“The Energy Summit was organized by Mindanao Development Authority, the (DOE) Department of Energy is only helping out. The lead government agency here is Minda of Secretary Lou Antonino which, you know, would look into the interest of the peoples of Mindanao,” Lacierda stressed.

Lacierda said the conference has been publicized in newspapers as well as aired over national television and radio stations.

“It’s not a secret-the Energy Summit is not a secret. The people of Minda have been preparing the people of Mindanao,” he said.

“You’ve got several stakeholders in Mindanao. You’ve got the generators, the transmission distributors, the electric cooperatives, the consumers, the local government.”

Lacierda said the conference is aimed at getting a consensus on how to address the energy situation in Mindanao.

He said President Aquino would allow the stakeholders in Mindanao to decide how to handle the power crisis in the region.

“There are proposed solutions but it is something that they would have to decide. That’s why the President has always stated it is open to everybody. Everybody should be on the same page when it comes to addressing the concern of energy in Mindanao,” Lacierda said.

“They have to come up with concrete solutions because this is precisely to address the energy situation in Mindanao. And it will be up to the people of Mindanao to come up and agree to that consensus,” he added.

In some areas in Mindanao, electricity is being rationed for almost three months now by local service utilities due to lack of supply from state-run hydroelectric plants in Lanao del Sur.

The affected provinces are North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.

They are bracing yet for longer blackouts with the planned general maintenance check of the Pulangi IV hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon to start anytime soon.

The facility produces 180 megawatts of electricity for the Mindanao grid, or about one-fourth of the island’s power requirement.

The DOE announced the impending maintenance check last Monday.

Local power cooperatives have been imposing two to four-hour sectional blackouts due to the scarcity of power supply.

Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista of Kidapawan City, North Cotabato said the local businesses would be affected if the Pulangi IV facility will be shut for a periodic maintenance check.

“Businesses in Kidapawan City and in surrounding towns in North Cotabato have plummeted in recent weeks as a result of the lack of power supply and soon this facility in Bukidnon will shut down for a maintenance check,” Evangelista said.

The Cotabato Electric Cooperative, which serves Kidapawan City and the 17 towns in North Cotabato, said the shutdown of the Pulangi IV plant would increase to between 300 to 350 megawatts the power deficiency being experienced now in many areas in Mindanao.

Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr., on the other hand, urged President Aquino to reconsider the emergency powers being granted by Congress to solve the present power shortage in Mindanao and strategically prepare for the upcoming power supply needs of the Luzon and Visayas islands in the coming years.

Espino cited the success of former President Fidel Ramos in solving the 8 to 12-hour blackouts that hit Metro Manila in1992.

“President Ramos was willingly granted emergency power through the Emergency Electric Power Law by Congress months after he assumed as President. By Christmas, in December 2003, the power problem was solved,” Espino said.

Espino also cited the recent warning of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that there will be a national crisis if the government failed to resolve the problem in power supply in Mindanao.

He confirmed Sen. Edgardo Angara’s warning that Luzon would also have power crisis in 2014 as well as the Visayas if there will be no new power plants.

Espino lauded Aquino’s initiative to preside the Energy Summit and sit down with stakeholders and discuss ways to address the energy crisis that has been causing up to 15-hour long power outages in Mindanao. - With John Unson, Non Alquitran