A firsthand look at a mini-hydro in Davao

We wrote that we already had a finished column for yesterday, but we had to set that aside to accommodate the breaking news of the death of the world’s number one terrorist, Osama bin Laden. So now allow me to talk about my big bike ride to Davao City. Actually this time around, I didn’t join the Fun Ride anymore as our group was also passing that area on our way to Cagayan de Oro. I instead joined the group led by Mr. Roberto “Bobby” Aboitiz and Stevie Paradies to visit the Aboitiz Power (AP) Sibulan Mini-Hydro, some 8 kilometers from the national road in Davao City.

Sir Bobby told me that this particular mini-hydro was the dream of the late Engr. Ernesto “Ernie” Aboitiz when he was chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MDA). I know that Ernie Aboitiz loved to fly his white Super Piper Cub and he undoubtedly used it to search for river sources that could be tapped for Diva’s energy source, which is a renewable energy source. Sadly, Ernie Aboitiz died a little over year ago, but the Sibulan mini-hydro is one AP project that they totally conceptualized, researched and developed on their own, a tribute to the vision of Ernie Aboitiz.

The mini-hydro is a 42.5 MW power plant operated by Hedcor-Sibulan, Inc. a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC). Going deep inside this place was truly an off-roading experience, driving deep into the foothills of Mt. Talomo, behind it is Mt. Apo. We stopped at the Headpond B, which is a 1.4 hectare water impounding area for the water piped from Headpond A. Hedcor-Sibulan, Inc. Vice-Pres. Gregorio “Boy” Jabonillo told me that this water comes from the Sibulan River, closer to Headpond A, which is 15-kilometers deeper into the forest, so we didn’t drive there anymore.

But from the Sibulan River, water is piped to Headpond A and then it is fed into the 16.5MW Plant A. After passing through the power station, the excess water is then piped into Headpond B (which we saw) and piped into the 26MW Plant B, which produces a total of 42.5 MW of power that power hungry Davao direly needs. This process was explained to us very well by maintenance manager Engr. Jocip Ebarle and operations manager Michael Quidayan, who made it look so simple but it’s really not that simple.

Actually, this system of harnessing water from river sources isn’t exactly new. The ancient Romans used a system of aqueducts to get their fresh water and they would pipe it to their cities, which are sometimes 50 kilometers away, through a system of aqueducts. I saw one such project in Southern France called the Pont du Gard Bridge, a very famous tourist site in France that spans the Gard River. This well-preserved three tiered Roman Bridge is located 25 kilometers from the City of Nimes near the City of Avignon. But the entire aqueduct spans over 50-kilometers.

Of course the Sibulan Mini-hydro is far more sophisticated than that. Best of all, they installed water lines from the huge pipes along areas in the barangay, which has helped the people who lived there. In fact, Boy Jabonillo told me that a few months back, when there was a firefight between the NPA and the military, he ordered the operations of the mini-hydro to be stopped. It was then that the community living near this project rose up and asked the NPA to leave the area. Later, it was even the NPAs themselves who asked Engr. Jabonillo to run the power plant again. This is a power project that brought power to Davao, while benefiting the poor people nearby.

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Turn on any news TV network and read all the international, national and local news and everyone’s talking about the death of Osama bin Laden. Not even the death of Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler got so much headline news. But now that all this is behind us, we can hope that this is the beginning of the death of Al Qaeda itself. Sure people say that you cannot kill an ideology. But in truth, what Osama bin Laden was espousing wasn’t anything new. Muslim Jihadists were around during the time of the Crusades and the bottom line here is, it was truly Muslims vs. Christians.

The Middle East unrest has now spread. After the peaceful revolt in Tunisia and in Egypt, it has spread to Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria and it had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Someday, this terror group would go the way of Nazism or Fascism and even Communism and perhaps we shall see a more peaceful world out there.

It was quite interesting to note that Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, which is so near to the Pakistani Military Academy. It is like having Communist Party Chief Jose Maria Sison living next door to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA); no wonder bin Laden was able to elude the American search parties for almost ten years. He was literally a secret guest of the Pakistani Intelligence Service. With Osama bin Laden’s death, America can now finalize its exit strategy to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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