Holding progress hostage

Once again, the recently concluded siege in Zamboanga City has focused media attention on Mindanao, the perennial “land of promise” but constantly plagued by sectarian strife, lawlessness, calamities, and a continuing island-wide power shortage crisis.

But there is a brighter side to it all. Despite the just ended bloody Zamboanga siege and the prevailing power shortage, Mindanao is, in real terms, well on its way to achieving its full potential for economic development and prosperity. 

This is seen in the steady growth of Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, and the rest of Mindanao’s boomtowns where new shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, and 24-hour business process outsourcing offices seem to sprout every day. 

Yet the “battle of Zamboanga” and the toppling of transmission lines in Cotabato show there are vulnerabilities in the peace and order side that stand in the way of Mindanao’s promise. The other obstacle is, of course, the festering power shortage.

This is currently being addressed by key players in the power industry who are now reportedly in a mad scramble to develop high capacity, coal-fired plants to provide reliable base-load power in Mindanao.

This mad scramble to put up coal-fired power plants in our country is taking place while most developed and developing countries like China and many European countries such as Poland are abandoning it because coal is not an environment-friendly source of energy.

Though it is not part of Mindanao, Palawan has also been suffering daily blackouts. While the province is host to a rich reservoir of natural gas from Malampaya that has been energizing the power plants in Luzon, Palawan has not gotten its due share of steady electricity supply.

Thanks to Puerto Princesa’s Underground River being elevated as among the Seven Wonders of the World, local and foreign tourists continue to flock to Palawan despite the debilitating blackouts. 

Another major city in Mindanao that seems to have been left behind in the commercial boom despite a vibrant industrial sector is Iligan.  During its heyday, Iligan was known as the â€œIndustrial City of the South” home to the National Steel Corporation (NSC), huge cement plants such as Iligan Cement and Alsons Cement, and numerous other industrial and manufacturing facilities.  

The Asian financial crisis that began in 1997 and went on until early 1999 adversely affected the finances and operations of many of Iligan’s industrial concerns. The crisis, coupled with recurring peace and order problems and the considerable distance from the nearest airport (in Cagayan de Oro), were key factors in Iligan being overtaken by Cagayan de Oro as a major commercial hub. 

The mall giants such as SM and Robinsons have yet to set up shop in Iligan while they along with newcomer Ayala and local mall developer Limketkai have clearly established themselves in Cagayan de Oro.

But a series of providential events have led many to believe that Iligan’s luck is about to change for the better with the commencement of operations of the Laguindingan Airport. The long-awaited opening of Laguindingan provided the people of Iligan and the nearby provinces of Lanao with a gateway to the world that is a lot closer than Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro. Let’s hope the landing lights at the airport get installed soon so that night flights to and from Laguindingan will be possible.

Another bright spot for the province was the successful rehabilitation of the 20-year-old 98 Mega Watt Iligan Diesel Power Plant (IDPP) by the Mapalad Power Corporation (MPC) — a subsidiary of the Alsons Power group. It is considered as one of the key players in the power sector in Mindanao and the original developer and operator of the IDPP before turning over operations to the state-run National Power Corporation (Napocor) in 2006. 

The six-month restoration and overhaul of the plant’s damaged and aging equipment has brought about a reliable alternative source of power for Iligan City and other areas of Mindanao. With the MPC plant in full operation, the people of Iligan and other MPC clients will have an additional source of electricity outside the largely hydroelectric-powered Mindanao grid shared by the entire island. 

These are all indicators that Iligan is once again poised to regain its position as the Industrial City of the South and match Cagayan de Oro as a major commercial center joining the ranks of Davao City and General Santos. We hear that Robinsons will soon set up shop in Iligan and it will be a “no brainer” to guess that SM will follow suit. All of this should be good news for Iliganons.

Which makes it rather puzzling why some people are apparently seeking to turn back the clock by questioning the sale of the IDPP to the group behind Mapalad Power. From what we hear, the facility was a piece of junk after Napocor turned it over to the City of Iligan in 2010. We hear that the city government, instead of running the plant and spending hundreds of millions of pesos in rehabilitating the facilities and equipment, called for bidding and wisely decided to have the private sector run the plant and assume the financial risk.

Mapalad Power eventually won via a negotiated bid subjected to a Swiss Challenge, with the approval of the Commission on Audit (COA), and has thus far spent over P1 billion in the acquisition, repair and rehabilitation of the plant. Well, the proof of the pudding as they say is in the eating. The plant was fully rehabilitated and reached full capacity a full week ahead of its September 11 deadline and now delivers electricity to Iligan City, Zamboanga City, Pagadian, and other areas of Mindanao.   

That should have finally put an end to the issue, but now we are informed that some persons have filed plunder charges against the City Council with the Ombudsman and are even mulling plunder charges against the COA itself, for the original sale of the plant by the City. We see a hidden agenda, if not politics, behind these obstructionist moves. 

The commonsense people of Iligan know better than to listen to these rabble-rousers whose agenda is a threat to the power security and future prosperity of their city. They would not allow these characters to do to Iligan what Misuari and his cabal have done to Zamboanga — hold hostage progress and development.