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Ruffy Magbanua

THE Movement for a Brownout-Free Mindanao has an urgent call: 1) Malacanang to convene  the National Security Council to discuss the Mindanao  power situation 2) House Committee on Energy to hold congressional inquiry for power industry players (NGCP, Napocor and Psalm) to explain to the Filipino people on the unabated  bombings of towers in Mindanao.

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Yes, we are one with the observation of the House committee on energy chaired by Mindoro Rep. Rey Umali that the power situation in Mindanao is “approaching crisis proportions.”

Mindanao, the country’s second largest island with 13 million voters is indeed facing an impending power crisis if the spate of bombings will persist unceasingly in the coming days and weeks.

Henceforth, we are also in agreement with Rep. Rufus Rodriguez that a failure of elections may happen if more towers are toppled down–day after day until election day.

Accordingly, Mindanaoans are not happy with what NGCP is doing–announcement and restoration.  The after-incident report is somehow a  reactive attitude coming from a supposedly well-oiled power consortium.

Definitely, this is not what the people of Mindanao would want to know. We are interested on the “how” the problem is being addressed considering the magnitude of the destruction—the bombings of towers now happening  almost on a weekly basis.

This compels us to wonder: NGCP has been in the transmission business for seven long years now and yet, right-of-way valuation issues remain unresolved up to this day.

Now, every time a tower is bombed, the usual run-of-the-mill excuses are the unsettled right-of-way claims, uncooperative landowners, trees planted underneath power lines, and line personnel being barred entry to undergo repair works of damaged towers, among others.

And this problem becomes double-whammy with the threatening surge of the El Nino phenomenon, hitting us hard with long dry spell, sending the water level of Lake Lanao, source of the island’s hydro-power to a critical low.

Through time, Mindanao has been beset by bombings of transmission facilities at an unprecedented record. And there seems no solution in sight as electric terrorists, unscathed and on-theun, continue sabotaging the economy of  Mindanao.

Mindanao is a puzzling contrast if we have to compare the power situation in Luzon and the Visayas where towers stand proud sans the bombings–with all its might and glory. The envy is on us Mindanaoans.

More so when we have to look at the current power outlook: Luzon has an average excess power of 2,119 mw while Visayas has 98 mw.  Mindanao has only 9 mw average to boost its power reserve. What a dismal difference indeed!

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