GMA keeps her promise on Cebu’s power needs

Last Saturday morning, we choppered to Daanbantayan to witness the launching of the Interconnection Uprating Project, which would add another 200 megawatts to power-hungry Metro Cebu. No less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo flew to the northernmost tip of Cebu with Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia and Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez in tow to kick off the cable-laying program, where the C/S Guilo Verne, the world’s largest cable-laying vessel, was anchored in Talisay, Daanbantayan.

This is a major link to another vital power project, the Cebu-Mactan Interconnection Project. Both are part and parcel of the National Transmission Corp.’s (Transco) Visayas Transmission Augmentation Program or Project Vista, which aims to boost power supply to Cebu’s vital export industries located in the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.

Mactan’s power requirements had jumped from 29 MW in 1998 to 46 MW in 2001, while Mandaue City’s increased from 46 MW in 1998 to 55 MW in 2001. That’s a steady average hike of 18 percent per annum, thanks to the increase in business activities at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) and the continued growth of the furniture industry, mainly based in Mandaue City.

Just to show you how bad government bureaucracy is, this project was actually endorsed by the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) way back in 1997 with parallel endorsements by Metro Cebu and the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue and Talisay. The NEDA-ICC approved this project on Jan. 23, 2003 and bid it out on Aug. 15, 2003. Today, traffic is bad in some key road sections of Mandaue City because cables are being placed underground.

Actually, we wrote lengthily about this issue two years ago, as I questioned why this project was costing the taxpayers some P2 billion when it could actually cost much less if Transco opted to use an overhead line. Well, those columns of mine were answered by no less than the president of Transco, Alan Ortiz, who flew to Cebu to accept my invitation to appear on my TV talk show, Straight from the Sky, on Nov. 22, 2004.

It was there that Ortiz clearly explained to our Cebu televiewers that while the overhead lines were cheaper than underground lines, however, the overhead lines were not the ones that would bring up the cost. Rather, Transco would have to acquire the property directly under the power cables since no structure, house or building would be allowed to be under these high-voltage power cables.

All told, the road right-of-way (RROW) would have amounted to some P1.16 billion which, in the end, would actually end up costing more. I used to be the RROW chairman (private sector rep) of the Metro Cebu Development Projects (MCDP I, II and III) and it took years to complete the series of road widenings within Metro Cebu simply because of the court cases involving RROW... which tells you that a year’s delay is even considered lucky. With Cebu so power-hungry (yes, today we’re still experiencing brownouts, thanks to the continued operation of the old thermal plants in Naga, Cebu), any delays in this project could have disastrous consequences, especially to the MEPZ or the furniture-exporting industries and the nation’s economy as well.

With today’s high technology, it would take the C/S Guilo Verne (Jules Vernes) less than two weeks to lay the undersea cable 30 kilometers from Cebu to the Tabango cable station in Leyte. When this project is finished, it is hoped that Cebu would no longer suffer power outages, which have become so common nowadays. Mind you, this was one of the promises that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave to the Cebuanos, that she would solve our power problems during the first year of her term, which she again repeated when she thanked Cebu for giving her the presidency.

As Ortiz told me last Thursday when he again appeared on my TV show (which will be shown tonight on SkyCable’s Channel 15 in Metro Cebu only), before the year ends, Cebu will no longer be facing any power crisis, as Transco will be able to send power from the Tongonan geothermal plant directly to Cebu and on to the Cebu-Mactan Interconnection Project.

But will this project really end before Christmas 2005? We certainly hope so. However, I see a big monkey wrench coming our way, which is being thrown into this project. This monkey wrench comes from no less from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which coincidentally has called for a "public hearing" today, from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Lapu-Lapu City Sanggunian Session Hall. Now, why in heaven’s name is the ERC conducting a public hearing on this project only now when all the requirements that this project needed were approved long ago? Are the ERC commissioners trying to embarrass the President by conducting a public hearing just after she had launched the cable-laying program?

Where was the ERC when we wrote our columns questioning this project? Do you really want to know what people think of today’s public hearing? It is said that this has become something "personal" between the ERC and Transco. This is a mere speculation, but if you ask me at this point, the ERC is making a grievous error in trying to stop this project when it is almost completed. I’m really tempted to go to that public hearing so I can say my piece and ask the ERC where it has been all along.

Frankly speaking, I was tempted to ask the President this question, but I deferred, opting instead to ask about the creation of a "no-fishing zone" where the undersea cables are located as the first set of cables was cut when PLDT laid its undersea fiber optic cables. My query was answered ably by Gov. Gwen Garcia, who vowed to work together with the local government of Daanbantayan to ensure that this vital power link to Leyte would not be cut by other cable-laying ships or destroyed by dynamite fishing, which is rampant in the area. Once again, President Arroyo has delivered on her promise and yes, that’s the reason why no one in Cebu is seeking to have her administration ousted.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.