Powerless

NEXT YEAR, the country may be plunged back to the Stone Age. Or to be more recent, to the early 1990s when rotational brownouts were the norm. The brownouts then lasted from 8-12 hours, severely crippling industry and completely obliterating hopes for better lives. The same situation may be in store for us soon if our government does not focus on solving this looming crisis.

It may be coincidental, but the first time the country was crippled by a power crisis was during the term of former Pres. Corazon C. Aquino. After mothballing the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant—which was then conceptualized and later built by former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos to be the main power source of the country—Mrs. Aquino and her officials did not quite notice that the power vacuum left by the nuclear plant needed to be plugged; hence the power crisis of 1992. The mothballing later turned out to be the right decision as the BNPP was built haphazardly—due to corruption—and was also built on dangerous grounds—literally. But as we later learned, it was simply another part of a puzzle and when the powers that be forgot to fill the void, the power crisis snapped at us. And all the economic gains the 1986 People Power had gifted the country and whatever was left of it after those disastrous coup attempts of the rightists, literally vanished in the dark.

Back to the future, the recent unprecedented Gross Domestic Product gains by the country may all go down the same road. And another Aquino who also worked hard to attain this may again end up shouldering all the blame for the forthcoming crisis. Soon enough, it would all become clear that what the Aquinos painstakingly build, they end up destroying simply because of carelessness—or worse, disconnect.

President Aquino, the first, was warned about the looming power crisis but apparently she was too preoccupied fending off coup attempts that she and her officials did not even bother to craft a plan to either avert the crisis or alleviate its effects. Out of time and with the Filipino peoples out of patience, Mrs. Aquino then had to “hand over” the problem to her successor.

The successor, who turned out to be Mrs. Aquino’s anointed, Pres. Fidel V. Ramos wasted no time solving the power crisis. Armed with emergency powers given by Congress, Mr. Ramos and his officials entered into contracts and agreements with various power corporations from all corners of the world. Soon enough, the power crisis was over. The only problem being the price of electricity shooting up making us having one of the highest electricity rates in the world. The power crisis of the 1990s was solved but we are still paying for it more than 20 years later.

Now, President Aquino, the second, is also being constantly warned about the looming crisis but apparently, he may be too preoccupied defending the DAP and his cabinet officials. Add to this the fact that his chosen successor is lagging very much behind in the surveys. So in effect, he appears to be showing that he doesn’t want to be bothered by this. He further proved this when he only mentioned the power crisis in passing during his SONA.

The solution being presented by administration lawmakers to clothe President Aquino with emergency powers to deal with the crisis is not the solution. We have been down that road before and where did it get us?

The real solution lies in expediting the process of granting permits and licenses to power projects, which basically means cutting red tape. The government should also look to renewable energy as this is cheaper and more environment-friendly.

But to do this, the President needs to re-arrange his priorities. Less politics, less DAP, less combativeness and more reaching out to connect more to his people to know, learn and understand what they really need him to do.

Now.

(MTE)