Now
I am convinced that as far as the people of Occidental Mindoro is concerned, like the rest
of the Filipinos, Raffy Tulfo is greatly considered as the fix all problem
solver, the messiah, if not the mediatrix from above. This is based on the reaction I got from his viewers yesterday featuring the incessant power interruptions that we experienced lately. Incidentally, this part of Tamarawlandia was once labelled as the “Blackout Capital of the Philippines” owing to
power outages happening in all of its mainland towns for more than 3 decades
now.
Last
Tuesday, a netizen from Rizal town called
the attention of the anchor of the public affairs program “Wanted sa Radyo”, a popular radio-television show and YouTube channel. Angel Mendoza, a member of the
LGBTQ community bravely faced the camera and discussed the currently-prevailing
rotational brownout schedule in the province and brought it to the attention of
one of the famous Tulfo Brothers, Raffy Tulfo or “Idol Raffy” to his millions
of diehard followers. Me, not included.
I
salute Angel Mendoza for his/her bravery and courage, first and foremost. Mendoza’s
sentiment is shared by the people of Occidental Mindoro that the power
shortage problem has not only affected the daily lives of the electric
consumers, but has also curbed our economic activity and thereby impairing our economic
growth.
The
following day, and that was Wednesday (May 5), the same complaint from Mendoza was
again given airtime by their Idol Raffy. I will not mention who are his guests that day for
what they have told Tulfo is the same thing that they were telling us time and
again. But admittedly, I was entertained by the show and I am 110% sure that
after all what they have discussed in that episodes, we, the
consumers, citizens and netizens, still groping inside a dark tunnel and at the
mercy of our electricity providers who think nothing but their own businesses
and capital. Including the electric cooperative which had
been kowtowing to business interests of influential people from politics and business
both from our locality and elsewhere, then and now. Methinks.
OMECO
from the start, since it entered into an onerous, one-sided contract with Island Power
Corporation (IPC) up to the legality and technically confusing predicament how
the much trumpeted Emerging Power, Inc. (EPI), the developer of the Montelago geothermal
project, suddenly "transformed" as Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corporation (OMCPC) and its plants are like those of IPC powered by bunker fuel.
Instead
of EPI, how did OMCPC came into the picture? At the start, there was an
existing Power Supply Agreement (PSA) between OMECO and EPI. The former was apparently
hoodwinked by the latter as OMECO’s Meliton Pasol, as its Board President and
Rodolfo Plopinio as its Director, signed the PSA with EPI. Lo and behold, later
EPI, the supposed geothermal power company, assigned its PSA to OMCPC through
Deed of Assignment on September 9, 2015. Some incumbent politicians then sit
with EPI top honchos in various forum and occasions in the past. When the PSA
between OMECO and EPI was signed last February 28, 2014 at Sikatuna Beach Hotel
in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, the lawmaker who was in interviewed by Raffy
Tulfo last Wednesday was also there vouching for the worth of the EPI. Many attendees said that with EPI, our brownout days will finally be over. Just
like how another local politician operated the IPC with its 25-year exclusive
contract which was also signed by OMECO for more or less 3 decades now, without
thinking its atrocious consequence in the coming years.
It
was such a blunder on the side of OMECO when it informed the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in writing that it had no objection to the assigned PSA from EPI to OMCPC. Ergo, the PSA is
now between OMCPC and OMECO. I just do not know if there is an on-going legal
or judicial determination on the issue but that is now the very meat of contention. The then overhyped EPI geothermal
project which was trumpeted in 2014 as the sole supplier of geothermal energy
in the whole island of Mindoro went pfft like the bubbles in their nostrils.
We
live in the same ambiguous tunnel. We are still riding on the same banana (boat) in the same sea of uncertainty, so to speak.
Is the Raffy Tulfo show really an alternative mechanism for seeking justice? I doubt
it. We still have the courts of law and pertinent quasi-judicial bodies to do
that. For me, there are entertainment shows camouflaged as public service. Truly, there is a very thin line between
public service and rating, and in case of social media, likes, followings or
views and subscribers. The more subscribes, the more bucks one can rake out of
the anguish of the people.
Do
we really need only Raffy Tulfo to get out of this hellish energy crisis for
decades and the current brownouts? Again, my answer is in the negative. The magnitude and extent of this decades-long
debacle of power crises could not be capsulized in an entire episode, if not season of
a public service program or YouTube podcast or streaming. Brace for more rotational
brownouts every summer season of the year specially now in the midst of the increasing COVID-19 cases in
the province.
The struggle we must wage against this unjust act of those in the local power industry
cannot be a proxy struggle. Hopefully, our action and protest against brownouts and
power crises in the province should not end at Tulfo’s show. Letting our quest
for justice only remain in the show, we are all Tulfooled just the same. We should do more than than (social) media projection. There are thousand ways of battling this.
Citizens and netizens must rally
beyond that. How? That is the question we should address in unison. Certainly it could be through the courts or elsewhere but must surely be within the bounds of law by way of active and non-violent means. I have been calling for this since 2008 if my memory serves me right.
Be
like Angel Mendoza, Occidental Mindoro’s version of Greta Thunberg. Shout bravely
about our sorry state in whichever venue.
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(Photo: YouTube)
