LOWDOWN by Jojo A. Robles Posted on Apr. 25, 2013 at 12:01am
That report about Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim escaping suspension for his mishandling of the Rizal Park hostage massacre in 2010, despite the recommendation of the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, isn’t at all surprising. Regardless of this administration’s paroxysms of praise for the deceased DILG secretary, much of his well-intentioned work has been disregarded by President Noynoy Aquino, after all.
Take the case of the purchase of a passel of firetrucks by Robredo’s department for the government, a model of public procurement that even merited mention in a State of the Nation Address by the President because the deal saved the state millions of pesos. Despite the awarding of the contract to the lowest bidder, a Chinese provider, not one firetruck was ever delivered.
The man who replaced Robredo at DILG, presidential trouble-shooter and surrogate-in-chief Mar Roxas, gave the contract instead to the second-lowest bidder, also from China, who did not make the cut because of this other company’s higher asking price. And all because this defeated firetruck bidder was supposed to be closer to Roxas than the provider whom Robredo had approved.
It’s truly a pity that Robredo died in a plane crash before he could make a difference in government. But even before his untimely death, apparently, Jesse’s recommendations were already routinely being set aside, so it’s really doubtful if he would have achieved anything, at the end of the day.
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Three years ago in Davao City, newly-elected President Noynoy Aquino vowed to end the power crisis that was already being felt in Mindanao by encouraging the construction of more, non-fossil fuel-based “clean” power plants on the island. In his latest pronouncement on the full-blown crisis last week, Aquino blamed politicians for the virtual collapse of the Mindanao power supply system and the eight- to 12-hour blackouts that are now plaguing the island.
But for former Lanao del Sur Gov. Saidamen Pangarungan, the reason for the Mindanao blackouts is the failure of the Department of Energy to act on concrete proposals to increase power generation capabilities by the private sector, as provided for by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, also known as the Epira Law. Pangarungan, who now heads the Agus 3 Hydropower Corp. that wants to build a P24.5-billion hydro plant in Lanao, has blamed Aquino classmate and former Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras (now Cabinet Secretary) for sitting on a project that would generate up to 340 megawatts of clean electricity at low cost by 2015 and thereby solve the crisis.
Almendras and his successor as energy secretary, former Leyte Gov. Jericho Petilla, have refused to approve the Agus 3 project, which has received all the required government permits and approvals. Almendras even took almost two years just to reply to Pangarungan’s letter seeking the approval of DoE for the project in January 2011.
Apparently, Aquino has been convinced by Almendras that the Agus 3 project is not feasible, despite prior approvals by other government agencies that have the responsibility to evaluate it. Pangarungan insists that Almendras, whose job is purely ministerial and not discretionary as far as approval of new hydropower plants is concerned, violated Epira and the Renewable Energy Act by sitting on the Agus 3 proposal.
The former Lanao governor accused Almendras of being an agent of his former employer, Aboitiz Power, where he used to be treasurer. An Aboitiz subsidiary has been tapped by the Aquino administration to purchase and rehabilitate—at high cost and with questionable environmental impact —two old coal-fired power barges owned by the government, which is the administration’s solution to the crisis.
Of course, Aquino has already announced that the people of Mindanao will have to pay more for electricity, if they want to have it regularly. What he probably means is that, from the P3 per kilowatt hour cost of hydro-generated power, Mindanaoans will have to swallow the cost of the P14/kwh cost of the power generated by the Aboitiz power barges, according to Pangarungan’s computations.
Eventually, according to the Aquino administration power program, that cost will go down to an estimated P6.95/kwh when a new 300MW coal-fired power plant in Davao City goes online in 2014. By the way, the new Davao plant is also owned by Aboitiz, Almendras’ former company.
Pangarungan is also, in all likelihood, one of the targets of Aquino’s tirade against local politicians who are seeking exemptions from Epira so that they can make money by building hydropower plants. The President said these politicians effectively caused the power crisis because they did not and cannot maintain their hydropower plants properly.
But Pangarungan says Agus 3, being an entirely new project, is not seeking any exemptions from the law that apply to old hydro plants. And the reason Almendras and his successor are blocking Agus 3, whose construction is actually encouraged by Epira, is because they are beholden to Aboitiz.
As Aquino spends his current trip to Brunei with Almendras, among other officials, in tow, it’s possible that he cannot look deeper into the Mindanao power crisis. But if he really wants the problem solved, perhaps he should listen to other people aside from his cronies and their self-serving backers in the power game. source
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