EDITORIAL — Powerless

In Occidental Mindoro, classes had to be suspended for three days earlier this month because there was no power to run even electric fans in the scorching summer heat. Residents complain that their household appliances are breaking down from the regular blackouts that last from 16 to 20 hours a day. Hospitals have had to invest in expensive generators to power at least critical healthcare equipment such as dialysis machines. Protesting residents planned a “blackout concert” to express their dismay.

The energy crisis in the province prompted the declaration of a state of calamity on April 20, if only to allow speedier procurement and other responses to an emergency. Whether this will ease the situation remains to be seen. The crisis had built up over three decades, and was serious enough for then presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to promise, during a campaign sortie in April 2022, to fix the problem.

As the three-day blackout and state of calamity have shown, the problem has worsened since the 2022 campaign, and is aggravating poverty and underdevelopment in the province. The Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative, which won the power distribution contract through open bidding, sources the power from a bunker-fired diesel plant in San Jose operated by Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corp. OMCPC, however, is currently providing only 20 percent of local needs, according to OMECO.

OMCPC was awarded the supply contract by OMECO in 2020 through a competitive selection process. CSP completion, however, was delayed, and the Energy Regulatory Commission, which is supposed to subsidize OMCPC, decided to penalize OMECO by requiring the cooperative to shoulder 50 percent of the subsidy. OMECO protested the penalty, while the NPC’s payment of over half of the subsidy was also delayed. With the unpaid subsidies accumulating to over P1 billion, OMCPC cannot purchase bunker fuel, so its power generation has been acutely curtailed, from its optimum capacity of 20 megawatts to just seven MW daily.

The NPC has pointed to the surge in fuel prices for its inability to fulfill its subsidy obligations to OMCPC. The subsidy is instead being paid in monthly installments.

With the impasse over the subsidy from the NPC, the government is eyeing the emergency procurement of generators for OMECO and the release of P5 million for OMCPC’s acquisition of bunker fuel. In the meantime, in the 21st century, over half a million residents of the province must continue to endure life with near-zero electricity.