Mindanao blackouts deliberate

SEVERAL lawmakers from Mindanao are demanding immediate government action on the worsening power crisis on the island, saying the power crisis there was artificial and deliberately caused.

Energy officials were “in cahoots with unscrupulous businessmen who are out to make huge profits from the recurrent [blackouts], Agham party list Rep. Angelo Palmones said.

Palmones, from North Cotabato, was joined by Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong in expressing alarm over the crisis as he denounced the administration’s alleged misplaced sense of priority.

“It seems it’s not their priority, but the problem is really serious,’’ Palmones told the Manila Standard.

He said the people in Mindanao were becoming unproductive as a result of the power outages.

The World Meteorological Organization has predicted that Mindanao will experience severe a drought by 2015 up to 2020.

“This is a cause for alarm,” Palmones said.

“I appeal to the Department of Energy to seriously consider the Mindanao crisis and to provide a long term solution to the problem.”

Palmones said the allegations that the power crisis in Mindanao was an artificial shortage was one of several areas that should be looked into.

He said the entire Central Mindanao was among the hardest hit because 40 percent of the area were dependent on hydroelectric power plants.

“We need to put up additional power plants, coal fired or geothermal. Hydro power plants are not dependable during the summer season,” Palmones said.

Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong on Sunday suggested putting up power barges in Mindanao to augment the power supply was the best thing to do.

“The practical thing to do is for the government to improve the utilization of the power grid in Mindanao, so that to at least 60 to 70 percent can be utilized,” Datumanong said.

House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said “bold steps” should be taken to permanently lift Mindanao’s base load generation capacity.

“The power shortage in Mindanao gets more serious with every week of inaction by the Aquino administration,” Suarez said.

“The return of El Niño this summer will greatly affect the power situation in Mindanao, which depends mainly on hydroelectric plants,” Suarez said.

“But it will also have an adverse impact on agricultural production as well as the power,” Suarez said.

National Grid Corp. of the Philippines data showed that “the Mindanao grid, which needs an average of 1,300 megawatts, lacks an average of 50 megawatts to 270 megawatts daily, resulting in two to four hours of [rolling blackouts] since January.” –by Maricel Cruz, Manila Standard Today