| DIE HARD III |
 |
| Herman Tiu Laurel |
04/16/2012
At the much-ballyhooed power summit convened by the Aquino III
government in Davao last week, the clamor of Mindanao’s leaders and
people’s organizations was brilliantly echoed in the voice of Menchie
Ambalong of the Mindanao Commission on Women who, as reported, reasoned
that government’s alleged inefficiency “should not be an issue because
Agus-Pulangi earn(s) P7 billion a year,” eliciting immense applause from
the summit’s 350 delegates.
In contrast, the audience turned
silent when BS Aquino III, the supposed president of the republic, spoke
and insisted that government was inefficient in the operation of the
plants, saying, “We know for a fact that the government is inefficient
in operating the Agus-Pulangi and other assets and the debts that
resulted from that inefficiency were even bigger than the national
budget…”
Supporting Ambalong’s view, the president of the
Confederation of Provincial Governors, City Mayors and Municipal Mayors
League, Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, for his part, said,
“In Mindanao cheap hydropower is the only incentive that could attract
investors and drive commerce and development… Let’s shatter the myth
that the Napocor (National Power Corp.) and the Agus-Pulangi complex are
all losing propositions,” adding that the state-owned power company
earned P73.2 billion at P2 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from 2003 to 2011.
That’s
really telling President Noynoy Aquino that he’s either an idiot — for
being oblivious to the fact that Agus-Pulangi is a huge earner — or that
he’s simply parroting a deliberate lie of the power pirates and
privateers to deceive the people. Besides, if PeNoy’s finger were to
persist in pointing to government as inefficient, he might soon be
surprised to see where his thumb is actually aimed at.
In a
presidential republic, a president is both chief executive and head of
state, representing therefore the entirety of government. This is a
universal understanding. As Wikipedia puts it, “In presidential
republics the head of government may be the same person as the head of
state who is often called… a president…”
Now, if President BS
Aquino III says the government has been inefficient in Agus-Pulangi’s
operations, isn’t he actually saying that he himself was (and is)
inefficient as head of the very government in charge of everything in
the country since his proclamation in June of 2010? And given that he
seems to show a great disdain for “inefficiency,” castigating
“government” for being inefficient, can he apply that standard to
himself as head of government?
Such inanity was what BS Aquino III
made the 350 delegates suffer while they wriggled in their seats with a
great deal of difficulty out of holding back their rage.
Jojo
Borja, this column’s man-on-the-scene at the summit, called us
afterward, admitting that he held back and spoke only very briefly on
the floor, fearing that he may spill his raging gut and give BSA III a
tongue-lashing for the incredibly twisted perspective the head of
government displayed.
BSA III had such incongruent statements on
Agus-Pulangi that he actually asked Mindanaoans: “You insist on
operating it? So who would spend for the rehabilitation?”
The
Agus-Pulangi rehabilitation that would restore the complex to full
capacity was estimated by Napocor to cost anywhere between P2 to P3
billion. Is PeNoy saying that a head of government with a P1.816
trillion national budget for 2012 cannot find a relatively paltry amount
to avoid the losses that are 20 to 30 times greater?
As we can
see in this Mindanao Gold Star Daily report on the impact of the crisis,
“Estimated economic losses using the ratio of Gross National Product
(GNP) to the total kWh sold (P144 per kWh in 2010 multiplied by the 430
million unserved kWh in 2010) translates to P62 billion in economic
losses for Mindanao. In Cagayan de Oro and the towns of Tagoloan,
Villanueva, and Jasaan in Misamis Oriental, the reported total unserved
energy of 15.6 million kWh translates to some P2.2 billion in economic
losses.
Hardest hit during the 2010 crisis were member companies of the
Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Industries (Coci) with some suffering as much
as a 50-percent drop in production due to the power curtailment. ”
As
there is yet no current estimate on how much Mindanao’s economy has
bled from this continuing crisis, the above report lays a clear basis
for believing the losses until May this year will reach P62 billion or
likely even more.
But, as BSA III remains undeterred, he even
found the gumption to lecture Mindanaoans “to pay a real price for a
real service,” stressing that they are left with “only two choices: pay a
little more for energy or live with the (rolling blackouts).”
Considering
that even if the “blended” generation rate (a cost mix of the nearly
cost free hydroelectric power and the up to P14/kWh rate of independent
power producers or IPPs), when added to the distribution cost, would
approximate Cagayan de Oro’s rates today of around P7.50/kWh (the price
preferred by Sen. Serge Osmeña and the Energy Department), that would
still be $0.18/kWh — higher than Hong Kong’s $0.14/kWh, Kuala Lumpur’s
$0.11/kWh, Shenzhen and Jakarta’s $0.10/kWh, or Shanghai and New Delhi’s
$0.09/kWh. Comparing such figures from Jetro (Japan External Trade
Organization) where the Philippines’ nationwide average price already
tops the list at $0.23/kWh, that ranking will shoot up even more once
Mindanao accepts PeNoy’s higher rates.
And so we ask: In the face
of such burdens, are Filipinos (whether from Luzon, Visayas, or perhaps
Mindanao soon) who are being made to pay the highest power rates in
Asia, still the ones whom Serge Osmeña brands as “going to be in trouble
because (they’ve) been spoiled?” What the hell!
Perhaps the
ultimate question ought to be: Why are PeNoy and Serge spoiling the
power oligarchs? And, since the Palace occupant hates the “inefficient”
government so much, may we also ask: Why are you still there?
(Tune
in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5
to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV,
Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Fuel price
crisis: Solutions” with consumer advocate Dr. Amanda Cruz and Wilson
Fortaleza of FDC; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our
articles plus TV and radio archives)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120416com5.html
