Lawmaker hits government deal on power in Mindanao

Teodoro Casiño INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Department of Energy has committed to subsidize up to 64 percent of the cost of power purchased by Mindanao power cooperatives from two power barges owned by private power producers.

But Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño accused Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras of acting in “bad faith” by sealing the power supply agreements in behalf of private power barge contractors a week before the Mindano Power summit set this week.

Casiño claimed the DOE held a  pre-summit meeting in Davao on April 4 where Almendras ordered Mindanao electric cooperatives to buy power from private power barges at P14 per kilowatt hour with the government shouldering the P9 per kWh diesel cost.

In the same meeting, Almendras ordered local government officials to immediately approve the environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) for at least two new coal fired power plants in Mindanao.

“If that is the case then the power summit would just be a rubber stamp for DOE Circular DC 2012–03-0004 which forces consumers to pay an additional 50 to 80 centavos per kWh for their electricity due to the manipulations of favored private power generators like Therma Marine Inc. owned by the Aboitizes, ” he said.

“The summit is also meant to convince the people of Mindanao of the supposed need to deploy more coal-fired and diesel power plants despite Mindanao’s abundance in clean and renewable energy sources,” Casiño added.

He said Mindanao consumers and businessmen would pay a high price for the government subsidies.

“In terms of price, it’s P50-P80 additional for those who consume 100 kWh per month, P100-P160 for those who consume 200 kWh and so forth. This is on top of the approved increase by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for Napocor generation rates” said Casiño. Gil Cabacungan