Unfortunately, listening is not one of the strong points of Filipino leaders. Well, except one: President Fidel V. Ramos who authorized the massive build-up of power generation plants under the now infamous take-or-pay, build-operate-transfer scheme.
Of course, we know where this had ended. He received so much flak from our countrymen who have such short-lived memories the moment electricity prices started creeping up by immediately forgetting how tiresome the rotating brownouts and frequent blackouts had been.
Today, about six months before huge and serious power shortages are expected to hit the Luzon grid, the nation is once again mired in a debate about the wisdom of granting P-Noy emergency (or whatever) powers to solve the impending crisis of three- to four-hour per day brownouts.
Is ‘crisis’ real and beyond saving?
Is the situation really so unsalvageable? Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla has asked Congress to vest P-Noy with powers to approve the acquisition of additional power sources or construction of new plants, which had been translated by critics as the now controversial request for “emergency powers.”
Alright, here’s a scenario of what may have transpired in the dialogue between the Energy chief and his boss:
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Petilla (aloud, agitated): Boss, I’ve been trying so hard over the last years to solve this power crisis that’s really, really going to hit Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon by March next year.
P-Noy (blowing his top): What?! What have you been doing as my appointed Energy czar?
Petilla (thinking to himself): Boss, I’ve been warning you of this years ago.
P-Noy (thinking to himself): Ang hina naman nitong Energy secretary ko.
Petilla (aloud, trying to hide his inefficiency): Boss, I’ve been trying so hard to solve this problem. Pero you know naman how politics and the bureaucracy is in the Philippines. That’s why you yourself need to go to Congress to intervene. You’re the last resort.
P-Noy (exasperated): This is going to be a bad issue. But I guess this has to be done. Ok, let’s start the process.
Drawing lessons from this, it’s clear that both the small and big boss had their coping problems, and should be held accountable for throwing the country into a power crisis at a time when most of the world’s other economies are starting to gather momentum again.
Costly and deadly
The basic problem is still a lack of generation capacity, one that had been flagged four years ago at the very start of P-Noy’s term as president. In fact, last year, more brownouts had started creeping into the system, and this is validated by rising purchases of auxiliary power generation sets.
But of course, stand-by gen sets are for those smart enough and with spare cash, and are usually just enough to answer for short-term power outages and to keep their most basic equipment (computer mainframes, essential lights) running. These are not suited to keep operations running non-stop.
Then there’s the cost to business, something that will have to be added on to the already high price of connecting to the country’s electricity grid. If we’ve just celebrated the improved competitiveness of the Philippines in the world index, the power crisis will definitely pull us back several rungs lower.
Too late
Whatever solutions are agreed within the year, one thing is for sure: it’s going to be too late. There will be brownouts coming, initially during the summer months, then eventually embracing other times of the year until new power plants are commissioned and linked to the grid, which should be at the earliest by two years.
Meanwhile, businessmen are scrambling for short-term solutions. Some of them are smart and workable solutions, and perhaps something that the Energy department should be supporting with zeal and passion.
Some are simple suggestions easy to adapt, like asking businesses with gen sets to turn on their units during peak hours; while others are more complex that will require some out-of-the-box thinking and strong leadership since these have been in the roster of to-dos for the longest time.
Priority on the list will be a true deregulation of the power and electricity distribution industries that is shed of all the problems of the vestiges of the old original monopolistic state-run power generation set-up. We need some real good answers now on this tiring problem.
Let’s give P-Noy some temporary leeway in getting the needed power plants off the ground (or repaired), but let’s make him and his executive minions accountable by coming up with a real solution to the country’s problem of high electricity prices and always not-enough power supply.
Champions League (PCCL) at Cebu City
The University of San Carlos Warriors and Southwestern University Cobras are currently tied with one win each in their best-of-five series for two championship titles – CESAFI-Cebu and PCCL Overall Southern Islands – at the Cebu City Coliseum.
The SWU Cobras, last year’s Champions League (PCCL) Southern Islands title-holder, will try to make history as the top Visayas-Mindanao team for two consecutive years. The USC Warriors, on the other hand, is trying to break the hold of perennial rivals University of Visayas and SWU in the southern islands collegiate arena.
The PCCL Vis-Min Qualifying games are ongoing as appetizer to the USC-SWU championship series. Holy Trinity College of General Santos, Mindanao champion, and UNO-Recoletos of Bacolod, representing the Visayas Islands, have been eliminated in this knock-out series.
Remaining teams University of San Jose-Recoletos and University of Visayas will compete for the right to advance to the Elite Eight stage of Champions League (PCCL) 2014 National Collegiate Championship.
Already assured of seats in the Elite Eight phase are UAAP teams FEU Tamaraws and NU Bulldogs, and CESAFI teams University of San Carlos Warriors and Southwestern U Cobras. Other seats are reserved for the top two NCAA teams and the winners of Luzon-Metro Manila and Vis-Min Qualifying games.
The Champions League (PCCL) National Collegiate Championship is sponsored by media partners Philippine Star and ABS-CBN; and corporate partners Phoenix Petroleum, Molten Balls, Fil-Oil Flying V Sports, Fog City Creamery and Foccacia. Tickets are available at SM Tickets online.
Visit www.CollegiateChampionsLeague.net for more details about the nationwide competitions.
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