Earth Hour plunges West Visayas into gloom

I had not expected Sunday night’s 2nd Earth Hour to have gained so much support from Negrenses and Western Visayans. But that’s exactly what happened Sunday night. Electric power was cut off in almost all places in the region.

A tribute to the growing consciousness of the public on the imperative need to help change the climate.

This became evident last week when the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s board member Luis Tongoy reported that two of Negros Occidental’s biggest and most efficient sugar mills decided to close shop. The first was the Central Azu­carera de la Carlota in the city and the Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Mill in Binalbagay, Southern Negros Occidental.

La Carlota closed its operations on March 26. Biscom will cease operations on April 1.

The reason was that both mills have been hobbled by the quantity and quality of cane supplies trucked to their respective mill sites. And also reported that Victorias Milling Co. in North Negros is also suffering from a drop of its daily milling grind from the average 90,000 ton canes to only 70,000 last week.

In short, the climate change may have affected to a certain extent sugar production, the Negros Occidental’s main pro­duct.

That may explain the reason why Negrenses went all out to join the Earth Hour demonstration to project their support for steps to affect climate change or to arrest the deteriorating change in the climate.

Earlier this month, Negrenses and those of Western Visayas were complaining about the cold and the torrential downpour despite the fact that March is supposed to be not only sunny but also terribly hot. But, as pointed out by the con­federation of Sugar Producers’ Associations – Western Visa­yans chair Reynaldo Bantug, it seems that something is wrong with the climate.

Former Vice Gov. Romeo Gamboa commented that in the Silay mill district, there were sporadic downpours.

House to probe power rate hike

That also made Negrenses more concerned about the electric rate hike by the National Power Corp. and approved by the Energy Resources Commission by P1,146 per kilowatt hour.

While the Napocor had announced that this will be pared down to only about P84, majority of the power consumers still bucked the proposal. The main argument was almost simi­lar – it is untimely and could only worsen the impact of the economic global crisis.

Sen. Mar Roxas has filed Senate Resolution No. 940 that seeks to inquire by the Senate Energy Committee into the power rate hike.

On the other hand, the investigation into the same controversy is scheduled on April 17 at the Provincial Capitol, according to Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, chair of the House energy committee.

Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco had agreed to use the capitol’s top floor for the venue of the said hearing. This is expected to be attended by a large group of protesters, including top businessmen of the province.