MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 17, 2012) – San Juan Representative Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito Estrada has urged the Aquino administration to exempt the Agus-Pulangi Hydro-power Complex in Mindanao from the government’s privatization program, saying it accounts for more than half of the region’s power requirements.
Estrada said what the government should do is to immediately start the rehabilitation of power facility. He said the reduced output of the hydro-power complex is one of the main reasons for the rotating power outages in the southern region.
He said the complex generates only 635 MW from its capacity of 982 MW. He said the Agus-Pulangi cannot perform at full capacity because of the reduced water flow in the heavily-silted river that drives the turbines.
Estrada said the river must be dredged, but said the government is slow in the rehabilitating the facility.
“If that is so, the obvious solution is to dredge the river system. Unfortunately, the government moves at an exceedingly slow pace,” he said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said as early as August 2010, the government approved a P2.5 billion budget for the rehabilitation program, but the Department of Energy and the National Power Corporation failed to implement the project.
Estrada said: “The Agus-Pulangi is actually making money for the government – generating power at less than P1 per kilowatt-hour and selling it for P3 per kilowatt-hour. That is why I don’t understand why NAPOCOR is bent on privatizing these hydroelectric plants, which by the way are dispersed throughout Lanao and Bukidnon.”
“NAPOCOR tries to justify this move by telling us privatization is the solution to the brownouts. I don’t see how you can generate more electricity by selling off these power plants.”
He said the power shortage could have been prevented had the government begun rehabilitation work two years ago, when the budget for it was made available.
“Now the (power) shortage is being taken advantage of by some players in the power industry, by offering inordinately high power rates, and the government is only too willing to acquiesce,” Estrada said.
He warned unbridled increase in the cost of electricity will force families to drop education as a priority. “For only through education can our people improve their economic status. If we deprive them even that opportunity, we consign hem to a life of poverty and ignorance,” he said.
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