The
Power Supply Agreement (PSA) between Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative
(OMECO) and the Emerging Power Incorporated (EPI), Philippines was finally
signed last Friday, February 28, 2014 at Sikatuna Beach Hotel here in San Jose,
Occidental Mindoro and the speakers, especially those coming from our locality,
including the two program emcees, keep on saying, “Walang pulitika ito” and with all honesty I do not believe them. There
is politics in everything. Be it in other part of the planet or right here at
our very nose.
The
event is supposedly witnessed by no less than Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla
but he didn’t show up for the day before, all of the five of the geothermal
plants in Mindanao bogged down that resulted to massive power outage in the
whole region. Malacanan sent him in the area to assess and remedy the situation
there. He felt so sorry for his absence, according to reports. Secretary
Petilla, on the other hand, is very positive on the realization of Mindoro
Integrated Development Plan which is targeted to be funded by the
Malampaya Fund.
The
PSA between OMECO and EPI is a welcome development. At this early point, I
would like to congratulate the OMECO people led by Melito Pasol, Chairman of
the Board and Engr. Fritz Dantis, its general manager. EPI is a Mindoro-based
power company which is about to operate a 45-megawatt geothermal power plant in
Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. The confirmatory tests, according to the EPI
executive president Alberto C. Guanzon, gained positive results and they will
be drilling 8 wells starting July of this year and gave assurance that the
first well with 3MW capacity would be directed to, thus augment power supply in
Occidental Mindoro through OMECO.
According
to Rep. Josephine Y. Ramirez Sato, EPI assured them that by 2015, we will be
getting additional 3.3 MW and expected to increase each year. By 2017, we can
all say goodbye to brown outs and other hassles brought about by power outage, we
were assured. Our geothermal source has a life span of 50 years and the
Contract or the PSA has a life span of 25 years. What we need now are
transmission lines and the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) should upgrade
all its transmission lines circumventing the whole island as soon as possible. Sato
asked the people from EPI to stand by their commitment. Rep. Rey Umali, of 2nd
district of Oriental Mindoro and chair of the Committee on Energy at the House
of Representatives, too, graced the occasion.
From
my perspective as a lowly electric consumer and MSEAC member, I think that financially-wise,
geothermal is more acceptable than bunker fuel or oil and carbon for it belongs
to renewable energy. Our country sells the highest electricity rate in the
universe that made the average unit electricity consumption per Filipino
household is half that of Indonesia. News reports have it that EPI is slated to
drill by the third quarter of this year and will start delivering by middle of
2015, with the full capacity for delivering 20 MW to Occidental Mindoro and 20
MW to Oriental Mindoro by the middle of 2016. Antonie de Wilde, CEO of Emerging
Power Inc, Philippines assured that the whole island will be the “capital of the shining light in the
country.” Indeed, the geothermal field could also attract tourists just
like the so-called Blue Lagoon in Iceland, they say.
In
a paper entitled “Toward a Sustainable Energy Future for All: The Energy Sector
Directions Paper” released by the World Bank in July 2013 stressed that the
access to reliable source of energy is a key component to ending poverty. The
undersigned too is into opinion that people living without electricity have
fewer opportunities to improve their lives. Indeed, delivering reliable energy
services for economic development and providing access to electricity to
communities without or lacking such energy services is essential to reducing
poverty. "Access to energy is
absolutely fundamental in the struggle against poverty," said World
Bank Vice President Rachel Kyte. "It
is energy that lights the lamp that lets you do your homework, that keeps the
heat on in a hospital, the light that lights the small businesses where most
people work. Without energy, there is no economic growth, there is no dynamism,
and there is no opportunity." Let us be watchdogs more than ever. Our people
cannot afford to be impoverished forever. We deserve more than being poor.
Everything
is political. Thus, being the basic social service, the provision of reliable
and affordable electricity, is one product of politics’ true intention. And
again to emphasize, politics in the strictest sense of the world is sacred and
positive. The ugly things are, among other things, when politicians intervene
in a supposed to be apolitical (not leaning on any political group) electric
cooperatives. In short, how politicians wield political power and authority. When
this- and- that politician makes business or makes money out of it. When (s)he
uses all the tricks (s)he can afford to legally assert his/her business
interest. These are the very emerging concerns that we must be vigilant of as
electric consumers.
There
is politics in everything. Even silence is a political option and action…
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(Photo grabbed without permission from Robert Asignacion's Facebook account)
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