Open to partnership

Ruffy Magbanua

HERE’S a letter my group addressed to USAID Director Susan Brems:

The Movement for a Brownout-Free Mindanao, a volunteer watchdog for the uninterrupted and sustainable power supply in Mindanao, is interested to touch base with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for  possible briefing/discussion  on  the Energy Policy and Development Program (EPDP) for the Philippines.

As chairman of the movement, we would like to know if the USAID has included Mindanao in the promotion of best practices to achieve economicall sound energy policies for a cost-effective, sustainable and reliable electric service in  the country’s second largest island.

We understand you have just concluded a meeting among various stakeholders in the education sector to discuss policy and research issues on energy development in the country.

As we all agree, Mindanao is widely known as the country’s breadbasket, source of sizeable amounts of natural resources yet up to now, its infrastructures, including energy, have remained laggard and have been continuously threatened with outside forces, including bombings of power transmission facilities.

As a mouthpiece of power consumers in Mindanao, the movement would like to play a proactive role in the dissemination of relevant and timely issues on the power situation in Mindanao, i.e. shortfall of power supply due to unreliable power sources, effects of El Nino and sporadic bombings of electric pylons, among other concerns.

In this regard, we would be willing to partner with you for the promotion of  technological innovation and push for  regulatory and structural reforms in the energy sector for Mindanao.