Learn from the experience and move forward

I hope we can finally move on as a nation from the unfortunate hostage incident that happened last Monday. Lives were lost and our hearts go out to the families and friends of the tourists who perished in that senseless exercise. The foreign community, most especially our neighbors from nearby Hong Kong, has pointed out our inadequacies, which may even be such a benign word in the face of the tragedy. However, we hope the sectors concerned take the lessons learned from this tragedy to heart and strive to improve, learn and do better next time. For the families of the victims, the loss is irreparable, and we can only offer our deepest sympathy. For the country, we can only hope that the stigma will not take too long to erase and we can move forward like Indonesia after Bali and India after the deadly hotel bombing that left many foreign tourists dead. Remember the train bombings in Spain?

Those grossly negligent and at fault must take the blame, but let’s not let the finger-pointing get too far as to encompass the whole government. Nor is retribution through the Filipino working community in Hong Kong the balm to the gaping wounds inflicted by one errant maniac. Let sobriety rule for both our people.

Encouraging prospect for our energy front?

The Deputy Trade Commissioner of KOTRA, the Korea Investments & Trade Promotion Agency was here recently to unveil some investment opportunities for our local businessmen, particularly in the power sector.

Mr. Sung Joo Im of KOTRA spoke about the East Asia Climate Change Fund initiated by Korea to develop clean industries that would benefit countries like the Philippines. He pointed out that our country is very rich in natural resources but was aghast about the price of electricity in this country. Everybody knows we have the most expensive power rate in the region, next only to Japan and Singapore, two countries where cost of living is also at its highest in the region.

Korea has developed its power facilities most efficiently, largely through government initiatives. Korea’s local power company, KEPKO, according to the Deputy Commissioner, rates no. 1 in power efficiency in the world while here at home, we continue to struggle with an extremely high cost of power which has caused many manufacturers to shut down their operations. If we continue at this rate, the manufacturing sector will gradually erode, reducing us to a nation completely dependent on imports, with an unemployment rate unprecedented in our history.

To think that among our neighbors, we were the first to come up with a Renewable Energy Law which held so much promise when it was crafted. The creation of this law had concrete basis: the Philippines is no. 2 in the world as far as geothermal energy is concerned, and the no. 1 producer of wind energy in Southeast Asia. This is why Korea has singled us out for this Climate Change Fund, according to Mr. Soong Joo Im.

Last year, Korea also initiated the Philippine-Korea Renewable Energy Forum, called the Green Hub Asia if I’m not mistaken, seeking energy co-development and co-partnership in Seoul. They invited the PNOC, officials from the Department of Energy and several energy project owners to participate in the four-day seminar and “exchange project information and company information”. The Philippine delegation reportedly met with some big suppliers and contractors from Korea’s power sector arranged by the Korean Investments & Trade Promotion Agency. That was last year, and we haven’t heard any developments yet from this supposedly “fruitful junket”.

This year, the Koreans are again planning to hold the 2nd Korean Hub Week in Seoul. That would be in Oct. 14-15, and they are again planning to invite stakeholders in the local power industry. At this stage, they are still in the selection process, but between seven to eight Philippine project holders are in the short list of invitees to this year’s forum.

Nakakainggit talaga when you hear the Koreans say, quite frankly, that in Korea they have an oversupply of energy, and it is not an empty boast either, while here, we have to ration energy and resort to intermittent power outages to conserve the limited supply of power that is barely affordable for many Filipino households. Also, for us, Korea is our No. 6 trading partner, while for Korea, the Philippines ranks No. 17 as a trade partner.

The Koreans point out that until 2004-2005, trade between our two countries has not been very active until they built their shipbuilding facilities in Subic. Trade started to increase in 2006 when Korean investments started coming in. Their biomass project in Northern Samar looks promising, and they hope to see more fruitful joint projects with Philippine partners in the very near future. In particular, they would like to co- develop more clean energy projects which, hopefully, would end our dismal power problems in the country.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that something concrete develops in October when the 2nd Korean Hub Week takes place on the 14th and 15th in Seoul. According to Mr. Soong, though the Korean Hub is not just for the Philippines but for the whole of Asia as well, they wouldn’t mind having one just for Korea and the Philippines if we take the challenge of developing clean energy seriously and promptly.

What about it, gents?

Mabuhay!!!  Be proud to be a Filipino.

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