Mindanao must brace for dearer electricity

Monday, 26 March, 2012 Written by Maricel Cruz


LAWMAKERS on Monday warned Mindanao consumers and businesses to brace for higher power rates despite the crippling outages that are expected to last until 2013.


House Deputy Minority Leader and Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay said the warning came from President Benigno Aquino III himself, who said consumers in the region “should share the burden” of power costs.


The statement, she said, meant that Mr. Aquino would not subsidize the cost of power to Mindanao consumers amid accusations that the power shortage was artificial.


Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones, a member of the House committee on Mindanao affairs, condemned Energy Department officials led by Secretary Jose Almendras for forcing Mindanao consumers to accept higher power rates by delaying the rehabilitation work on the hydroelectric power plants and failing to mobilize power barges and commission idle generating capacity on the island.


He said this was apparently a strategy aimed at giving Mindanao consumers and business no choice.


“Making the people suffer crippling power outages is one effective way of making them submit to higher power rates. It is a simple case of ‘You want electricity? Then you must be willing to pay the costs no matter how exorbitant and expensive it will be,’” Palmones said.


The electricity generated from power barges, the short-term solution proposed by the government, would cost P13 to P14 per kilowatt-hour as opposed to only P3 per kilowatt-hour for the power from hydroelectric plants.


“The Mindanao power crisis is a stark example of the anti-people, anti-consumer and excessive ways of ‘noynoying’ a public service problem,” Magsaysay said, using a term that ridicules the President for his perceived inaction on pressing issues.


The administration wants all Mindanao power plants privatized, but congressmen and senators are opposing their sale, resulting in a stalemate and eight-hour daily blackouts.


Senator Serge Osmeña III cautioned the national government against committing the same mistake that former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made of bowing to public pressure and subsidizing the cost of power to the region, a move that resulted in huge losses to the government.


But Palmones said the government move to privatize the plans meant no funds were appropriated for their rehabilitation.


The Agus-Pulangui hydroelectric plants, for example, could generate 600 megawatts at full capacity if it were rehabilitated to wipe out the 167-megawatt deficit in the region.


He said the P3 billion needed to rehabilitate the plant could come from savings, or Congress might get the amount from the government’s P39.8-billion dole to the poor.


House Deputy Speaker Jesus Crispin Remulla on Monday said it was unlikely that congress’ leaders would be able to muster a quorum to hold a special session to deal with the power crisis because lawmakers had already made plans for the month-long Lenten break.


“It is likely that a quorum can be mustered only on May 7, when Congress resumes its sessions,” Remulla said.


“The congressmen and senators are already engaged with commitments.” With Christine F. Herrera