On federalism: Are Malaysians better than us?

In response to our Nov.18 article entitled "To Federalize or Not? Let the People Decide," we got a very lengthy reply from Camiguin Gov. Pedro P. Romualdo, who is vehemently against turning our country into federal states. Since his letter is so long, let me just print a few excerpts… "Let me, please, put in my one cent worth of opinion — that reading the history of all governments that adopted the federal system — this was never imposed — it evolved by itself." I have no arguments here. We do not want to impose it in Camiguin if the people there do not want it. All we want is for the people to make this momentous decision, not Congress nor the Parliament.

My good friend, Dr. Jose Dacudao of Save our Languages through Federalism (Solfed), wrote me a short note about federalism:

"In a true federal system, the central government, by law of the land, cannot encroach on the powers of the local governments, and this is already the system of government in more than half of the world’s land area, including the world’s most powerful and prosperous countries (USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Germany, Spain, Britain, Switzerland, and so on). Each local government (provincial, city or municipal, barangay) also gets to retain at least 75 percent of taxes deriving from economic operations in its territory, and this is real empowerment, as in the end it is money that talks."

Dr. Dacudao adds: "When India and Germany became federal after World War II (without any so-called 10-year transition), their economies were in tatters. Yet, the non-centralized system of federalism has unleashed local initiative to motivate local state economies to new heights, and has resulted in greater economic prosperity for these countries as a whole. This happened at the expense of central control, but why not? Power should belong to the local people." Well, as what we have already asked, are we Filipinos less capable than our Malaysian neighbors who are already enjoying a federal system?

As for the curfew being imposed in Camiguin, Gov. Romualdo wrote: "Yes, Bobit, everyone is covered by the curfew and believe me no one is spared or a sacred cow here. The reason for this is — those above 18 are with money and means to lure the youth to submit to their beastly desires and are aggressive." If you ask me, the Camiguin governor has judged all people 18 years and above as sexual fiends! He says further, "No, Bobit, our tourism industry is not affected; in fact, the honest-to-goodness tourists are flooding Camiguin every week, all year-round."

Again, let me point out that many tourists (the governor calls them my "tororista friends") have taken Camiguin off their plans because of the possibility of getting caught in the curfew. He even asks "my tororista friends" to stay out of Camiguin and frankly speaking Governor, even without my prodding, they are staying out of Camiguin!

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Exactly a week ago, a power crisis was averted when the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) and the Cebu Private Power Corp. (CPPC) were able to strike a deal for another month to give more time and room for negotiations on what rates VECO should pay CPPC. A few years ago, CPPC had already told VECO of a potential shutdown in its operations because of the high cost in running its power plants. VECO apparently wanted CPPC not to pass on its operational costs to VECO as it, too, would be forced to pass them on to its consumers… hence the current impasse.

The problem apparently stems from the reports coming from National Transmission Corp. (Transco) president Alan Ortiz, which we also wrote about in this corner, that Cebu province was "brownout-free" with the full implementation of the Cebu-Leyte interconnection. Apparently, I was told that this 200-MW uprating project isn’t fully operational yet… as only 150 MW were available for Cebu.

As for the Cebu/Mandaue-Mactan uprating project, again I was told that both substations from either end are still to be finished. Mind you, these two projects have already been inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA)… but too often, our government officials inaugurate projects just to please either the President or tell the people that such projects are already finished. Perhaps the best example of this is the South Reclamation Road Project, which was opened by the President before the elections, but we still have to see the light of the tunnel… yes, we literally mean the tunnel as it is supposed to go under Fort San Pedro to avoid it from crumbling.

While the Visayas Grid was supposed to gain 150 MW as a result of this interconnection, we were never told that the National Power Corp. (Napocor) had shut down the operations of the 50-MW Thermal Plant No. 1, including its six diesel engines, which is rated at 42 MW, plus two gas turbines rated at 56 MW. The 32-MW Power Barge 101, which used to be stationed in Panay, has been moved to Davao because of the 110-MW Pinamukan plant in Dingle.

However, I learned that the Pinamukan plant, which came from Batangas and was supposed to be operational last February, cannot deliver its rated 110 MW simply because the company that did the dismantling, the Consunji Construction Company, is just what it is, a construction firm with no experience in setting up power plants. Thus, they could only operate four of the eight engines in the plant because they had to cannibalize the other engines to make the four others run. That folks means, we’re short of 55 MW. To cut a long story short, what we gained from the Leyte interconnection was offset by the shutting down of Napocor’s existing plants.

What the Cebuano power consumers haven’t been told is that the curtailment or shutdown of the Napocor plants in Naga is due to economic reasons… not the usual preventive maintenance… meaning, they’ve stopped operating these power plants because it is too expensive to run them. Perhaps it is time for the officials of the Department of Energy to tell us the truth about our power situation.

For too long, government executives painted a rosy picture of Cebu being "brownout-free." But today, Cebu continues to suffer these brownouts. Someone ought to tell President Arroyo that someone has been pulling her leg! She may believe the yarn sold by her executives, but the Cebuanos know too well when all of the sudden, their lights go blink!

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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 talkshow, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.