NGCP tower bombings prompt Misor board to call for STATE OF EMERGENCY

By HERBIE GOMEZ
Editor in chief

MISAMIS Oriental’s legislature on Monday sought a government declaration of a state of emergency in Lanao del Sur and other areas where power transmission towers have been bombed even as it called on the elections commission to use its powers and step in.

The call came after Vice Gov. Jose Mari Pelaez sounded alarm bells and pointed out that a power crisis, aggravated by the toppling of power transmission towers, poses as a serious threat to the May elections in Mindanao. Because the threat of more bombings is an electionelated concern, he said, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should use its powers to ensure smooth polls this May. The Comelec is clothed with more powers during election periods.

For his part, Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano said he was worried over the gloomy power forecast for Mindanao, and on its effects on the island’s economy.

In a statement, Emano called on Malacanang to look into the problem “more intently,” and focus on preventing an economic crisis from taking place.

The provincial board passed two resolutions authored by Pelaez — one called for the declaration of a state of emergency in areas where facilities of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) are under threat while condemning the recent bombings; another urged the Comelec and Malacañang to immediately act on the problem, and employ measures to protect the NGCP towers and the Mindanao grid so as to ensure the continuous supply of electricity needed for credible elections.

In a statement, Pelaez stressed out that every Mindanaoan is a stakeholder because the threat of more bombings, especially during the forthcoming national and local elections, “threatens public order, and the integrity of a free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible national and local elections…”

The bombings, he added, “sabotage whatever economic and securityelated gains Mindanao has achieved so far.”

Pelaez said the national government needs to take extraordinary measures to thwart off threats that have the potentials of compromising the security of the remaining NGCP towers that carry the Maramag-Bunawan 138 -kv line.

He noted that it is the only NGCP line left that is being used to deliver Mindanao’s cheapest and bulk source of electricity.

“These senseless bombings destroy whatever preparations the Comelec and the entire country are doing to ensure the successful conduct of the elections especially in Mindanao. It is in the nation’s best interest that the election results are honest and imbued with integrity,” reads part of Pelaez’s statement.

The Pelaez-authored Resolution no. 10-2016 and Resolution no. 9-2016 were approved by the provincial board after it heard from NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza who briefed the provincial legislators about Mindanao’s power situation.

The NGCP said some 15 towers were bombed last year, and another two, this month, leaving the Mindanao grid in “highly vulnerable.” Alabanza said the power grid could “collapse” anytime soon if the problem was left unattended.

Alabanza said the NGCP was having difficulties because landowners with claims against the NGCP’s forerunner National Transmission Corp. (Transco) have barred repair crews from areas where the bombed towers are located.

Emano, meanwhile, said there were several factors, including the weather conditions, that were causing the power crisis. He called for discussions on how the crisis could affect Mindanao’s economy.

In 2015, said Emano, Mindanao’s economy grew by 6.3 percent which economists placed at P900 billion, and it accounted for 14.32 percent of the Philippine economy. He cited this to point out that Mindanao’s economic dislocation would have a domino effect on the entire country.

“We encourage the development of home-based, livelihood industries, most of which are dependent on power. When electric power is gone, gone too are their sources of income of these families,”  Emano said.

He said multinational companies could cushion the impact of a worsened power crisis with the use of their own power generators.

“Nevertheless, a power crisis that affect us could mean serious trouble for the whole country considering the contribution of the whole Mindanao to the country’s economy,” reads a portion of Emano’s statement.