Monday, 16 April, 2012 Written by Christine F. Herrera
DAVAO CITY — Mindanao will defy President Benigno Aquino III as the lawmakers from the island, backed by businessmen, local officials and environmentalists, on Sunday vowed to file a House resolution opposing the administration’s plan to sell off the Agus-Palangui hydroelectric plants and state-owned power barges.
“Mindanao has spoken with one voice. We have heard the strongest sentiment of our people,” said Misamis Occidental Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos, president of the 62-strong Mindanao Legislators’ Committee and a member of the President’s Liberal Party.
During the Power Summit here Friday, the President dismissed the widespread opposition to the privatization of the power plants, saying private companies would be able to operate them more efficiently.
But Mindanao’s residents fear privatization will bring higher electricity rates.
“Mindanao will fight. Let’s bring it on. We will show the President that Mindanao stands pat on its position,” said Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones, who comes from Cotabato.
“By filing the House resolution, we hope that the President will be enlightened and take heed that Mindanao people know what is best for them.”
“We are disappointed that the President ignored the general sentiment of the Mindanao people. We have started to lobby Congress to block the privatization of Agus-Pulangui and the power barges,” said Ronald Barrios, a member of the Kidapawan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“It was obvious that the President had already made up his mind not to listen to the consensus reached in the summit’s morning session because his prepared speech was opposite the stand made by Mindanao.
“What the President doesn’t know, however, is that the people of Mindanao are already hurting because of the blackouts and will be hurting more by paying more due to the power that would be bought from the privately-owned power barges.”
Ramon Floresta, president of the Kidapawan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the businessmen had been incurring millions in losses since two years ago when the island was hit by rolling blackouts.
Ocampos said he consulted the 62 Mindanao lawmakers before and after the Mindanao Power Summit on Friday at the Waterfront Insular Hotel, where the President said Mindanaoans should pay more if they did not want the rolling blackouts.
“Even after the summit, Mindanao lawmakers will oppose the privatization because this would result in the shooting up of the power rates. We will start with the move to amend the Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act],” Ocampos told the Manila Standard.
“Not one from those who attended the Mindanao Power Summit withdrew his or her signature. They came not just to listen to what the President had to say but also to sign the resolution [against privatization] that Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has drafted.”
The government is set to bid out four power barges, each with a capacity of 32 megawatts, in May.
Ocampos said the House resolution, which seeks to exempt the hydroelectric plants and the four barges from privatization, would be filed on May 7, when Congress resumes its sessions.
Also on Sunday, Senator Joker Arroyo said the Electric Power Industry Reform Act was a failure in meeting its objectives to reduce the debt of National Power Corp. and to lower power rates.
“I opposed its passage in 2001 and now we see why it is a failure,” Arroyo said in a radio interview.
National Power’s debt stood at $16.387 billion in 2001 when the law was passed, and it stood at $15.821 billion—a difference of only $500 million—at the end of 2010, Arroyo said.
He also cited the Mindanao’s power shortage as an example of the law’s failure.
At the Power Summit Friday, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the Iligan diesel power plant would start generating 100 megawatts of electricity as soon as the bidding results were confirmed by the Audit Commission.
The plant was supposed to have been turned over to a private operator in January but was not, thus adding to the energy shortfall on the island, he said. With John Anthony Concepcion
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/April/16)
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