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.

Separately, an interagency body will meet on Thursday to refine strategies that will address the Mindanao power crisis, presidential deputy spokesperson Gary Olivar said during a Thursday briefing in Malacañang.

The meeting will be attended by officials of the Departments of Energy, Finance, and Justice and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), he added.

“Their job is to make sure that the entire program is ready for execution once the formality of the proclamation is done by the President," Olivar said.

The dry spell brought about by El Niño has drastically reduced water supplies in dams in Mindanao. More than half of Mindanao’s energy requirements — at 53 percent — are sourced from dams.

Besides suffering from anywhere from three to 11-hour blackouts everyday, Mindanao has a shortfall of 700 megawatts.

Although rains are expected to come in June, the “recovery of water levels may take a little longer," Olivar said. “This crisis is definitely going to be around for a while and…we certainly have to move quickly."

Among the measures to be discussed during Thursday’s interagency meeting include altering work schedules, purchasing generation sets and power barges to increase power capacities, among others.

Mindanao is not connected to the power grid in Luzon and the Visayas. Thus, power plants in the two islands are unable to dispatch excess electricity to the Mindanao.

Energy crisis shows failure of govt, EPIRA

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."

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. - RJAB Jr., LBG/GMANews.TV