State of calamity declared in Mindanao amid power crisis
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved a recommendation declaring a state of calamity in Mindanao, allowing government to use disaster funds to address the power crisis besetting the Philippines’ second-largest island.
This was disclosed on Thursday by Mindanao Development Authority chairman Jesus Dureza, who, until last year, was the Arroyo government’s press secretary.
Dureza made this disclosure while accompanying the President during a visit in Zamboanga del Norte, a separate dzBB radio report said.
Declaring a state of calamity in Mindanao will also allow local government units to use up to five percent of their internal revenue allotments (IRA), which are their share of revenues from the national government.
Besides suffering from anywhere from three to 11-hour blackouts everyday, Mindanao also has a 700-megawatt power supply shortfall.
The energy deficit is enough to be already considered as “calamity proportions," Dureza added.
Earlier, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) recommended the declaration of a state of calamity so that local government units can use their calamity funds to remedy or alleviate the power crisis.
In the meantime, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said that the power crisis in Mindanao only shows the failure of the government and the Electricity Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
The law, also known as Republic Act 9136, “is turning out to be ineffectual in breaking the wild swings of power shortage and excess capacity that have characterized the power sector for the longest time, and that have made electricity increasingly expensive and less affordable and accessible to the people."
It also insisted that the government has the capability to foresee El Niño, both in the long and short terms, the group claimed in a statement.
“The government should have worked out the reserve capacity needed for Mindanao in the months — not years — that hydro-electric power cannot be relied upon," said FDC. “The next thing it should have done was to explore non-carbon, non-nuclear, non-hydro baseload options for Mindanao."
"Had the government prepared for this nine years ago, Mindanao should have been spared from blackouts," FDC’s national advocacy coordinator Job Bordamonte told GMANews.TV in a text message. "And even if funds would be released from the calamity funds, [Mindanao residents] will still end up holding the record of the poorest people paying the most expensive power in the world."
In the meantime, in Davao City, around 100 members of FDC-Davao marched to the venue of the public hearing conducted by the House Energy Committee.
The group asked the panel to disclose the technical audit regarding the actual capacity of the existing power plants posted in the DOE website (as of April 2009) especially the 712.48MW NPC-IPP power plants which enjoy take-or-pay provisions as well as the level of efficiency for transmission power systems and structure in Mindanao grid.
The group also called for a new energy framework outside of EPIRA, one that would ensure not only energy security but also universal access to electricity, serve the overall development and environmental agenda of our communities, and truly empower consumers.
Kim Chiu
Mike Defensor