Mindanao: Food basket turning into a basket case

Dark days are ahead for Mindanao with the power crisis causing eight to 10-hour brownouts daily. With El Niño worsening the rising temperature, people from Mindanao are certainly going through a hellish summer. One of our readers, Patrick Moncelet, describes the electrical interruptions in General Santos City as “horrific.” As the water levels continue to go down, hydroelectric plants will also have to shut down to further prevent turbine damage. Manufacturers are being asked to conduct operations at night when there is less demand for power, but productivity is already affected. Workers are agitating over shortened working hours, saying it is tantamount to being retrenched.

The power crisis has been foreseen a long time ago, with numerous warnings issued about its dire consequences but as usual, we didn’t do anything about it. Although the country is blessed with so many resources that could be utilized as alternative sources of energy, government has failed to bring in more investments into the power sector. And now that the energy crisis has worsened, government is making all kinds of suggestions to relieve the situation and assuage fears that the power crisis could affect the May elections. Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales is proposing the lease of generators (said to cost $200 million) to ensure power supply as well as the feasibility of investing in mini-nuclear power plants as a long-term solution to the energy crisis.

I was not really such a great fan of Marcos-era Energy secretary Ronnie Velasco. But I remember his warning to the Aquino administration about the consequences of mothballing the Bataan nuclear power plant. But he was brushed off by a Cabinet secretary who arrogantly told him, “We don’t need your advice, Mr. Geronimo. What we need is for you to tell us about the (Bataan nuclear power plant) corruption.” During that time, the BNPP facility was ready to run. It could have generated as much as 620 megawatts – more than enough to make the country less dependent of fossil fuels. In his 2006 book, Trailblazing: The Quest for Energy Self Reliance, Ronnie figured that the cost of uranium needed to run the facility was $20 million per year – as opposed to the $180 million government was spending on oil imports.

But members of the Cory Cabinet were more concerned about vengeance and retribution as they wanted to go after certain people, using the BNPP as a symbol of corruption, running it to the ground. As a result, everybody suffered because the Philippines experienced an energy crisis that literally plunged the whole country into darkness. To the credit of FVR, he put a stop to the blackouts and solved the energy crisis although critics say the contracts with independent power producers are onerous to government since it compels the country to buy, in dollars, the total capacity from each power-producing facility whether the electricity was utilized or not. That deal is now being blamed by many as the reason why the Philippines has one of the highest energy costs in Asia, next to Japan.

Congressman Mark Cojuangco has been pushing for the rehabilitation of the mothballed Bataan nuclear power plant, pointing out that other countries like the US, South Korea and Japan have been safely using nuclear plants. He knows nuclear power is the wave of the future – even sending us a book titled Power to save the world: The truth about nuclear energy which points out that “political fear-mongering” coupled with misperceptions have won over science in the debate about the potential of nuclear energy and how it can be successfully and economically harnessed. The author gives a compelling argument on the safety of nuclear power compared to other energy sources, adding that it can be a deterrent to global warming.

NEDA officials noted the need to review certain provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 that requires the President to seek Congressional approval before building new power facilities. Certainly, So many things must be reviewed, like the 1987 Constitution for instance because of its underlying ambiguities that could result in future problems. We see this happening now with the Supreme Court due to “conflicting” provisions. Incidentally, Cebu business tycoon Douglas Lu Ym argues that barring the bias against GMA, people should see the wisdom in appointing the chief justice now rather than later because he will have a better chance of being independent from the next administration.

As it is, going out into the streets will not solve any of our problems because the rule of law must prevail – defective as it may be due to many ambiguities ironically in the 1987 Cory Constitution. On the other hand, the Nacionalista Party has filed a motion for reconsideration which is really the way to go because it will not unduly inflame the situation.

Calling for people to go out into the streets would only aggravate the problems that the country faces especially at this time. There are other things the next president should concentrate on like the energy crisis that could soon spread to Luzon and the Visayas. Unfortunately, we never seem to learn from the lessons of history, that’s why we keep going around in circles with the power crisis in Mindanao as a glaring example. The place continues to be a hotbed of conflict, with insurgency and the violence making life even more difficult for the people.

People keep referring to Mindanao as the “food basket” of the Philippines, but the way things look, it will soon become a basket case with the energy crisis getting worse.

* * *

Email: [email protected]