People power urged vs coal plants

DAVAO CITY—Militant groups called for people power against continuing government failure to solve the crisis in electricity in Mindanao and dependence on coal, timing their protest action on the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution  that toppled the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986.

The groups marched to a coal power plant in Binugao, Toril District, here, which is owned by the Aboitiz group of companies.

Carrying a bus-sized streamer that reads “Solve power crisis, nationalize the industry,” groups led by Network Opposed to Coal (NO to Coal), Panalipdan and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Southern Mindanao picketed the Therma South Inc. coal power plant.

The plant’s operations started in January but failed to stop rotating brownouts in Davao.

“The idea of Edsa people power is about people relying on their strength to get what they want,” said Kim Gargar, spokesperson of Panalipdan, which also serves as secretariat of NO to Coal.

“Most people think that after the coal-fired power plant has been built, they could no longer do anything about it, but we don’t think so,” Gargar said, reminding people how on Feb. 25, 1986, people power ousted a dictator.

“Even if it’s already there standing before them, they can still stop it if they want to, they only have to muster enough strength for people power,” said Gargar.

Despite the government’s earlier promise to solve the power crisis in Mindanao through the entry of coal-fired power plants, the Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC), another Aboitiz-owned firm that distributes electricity to this city and the nearby Davao del Norte towns of Panabo and Carmen, is implementing a four-hour rotating brownout in the city.

DLPC said the power supply shortfall in the Mindanao grid was caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which lowered water level in Lake Lanao, the river that keeps turbines of the Agus hydropower complex running.

DLPC said in a statement that it has been advised on Feb. 16 that one of the units of the coal-fired power plant in Binugao would have to undergo a 10-day preventive maintenance shutdown until Feb. 26.

DLPC has been getting 50 MW of electricity from its sister company.

“This only goes to show that coal is not the promised solution for the rotating brownouts in Mindanao,” Gargar said.

“They’re now in full operation, and still we are experiencing rotating brownouts,” she said.

Protesters said that the real solution is to junk the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001, which puts in private hands the generation, distribution and transmission of electricity.

They are also demanding that the government “nationalize” the power industry to make electricity affordable to the poor.

After a two-hour picket in Binugao, the protesters, who also bore placards which read “No to coal, junk Epira” and “We don’t want coal,” gathered again at the city’s Freedom Park to resume their program.