Burias folk struggle for power

BURIAS ISLAND—Those with Facebook accounts in Claveria, Masbate, reach their friends online only at night, when lampposts are lit from dusk ’til dawn in the quaint town proper that has suffered for years from little or no power supply.

Claveria is the other half of the relatively isolated Burias, one of the three main islands of Masbate province. Electricity is a precious commodity every resident longs for; its scarcity has left most of the villages in the dark.

Darkness in Claveria and its neighbor, San Pascual, even goes beyond the literal absence of light. In the two northernmost municipalities of the province, the inadequacy or absence of electricity has deprived residents, especially schoolchildren, of access to and familiarity with advances in information and communication technology, from basic computer skills to social networking sites.

For a town with a population of 40,336, there is only one Internet café with five computers units. As expected, it only opens at night and online connection is dependent on the wireless broadband sticks provided by telecommunication companies.

Getting online though is the least concern of most youngsters. In the case of poor students whose families do not earn enough to acquire generator sets, deprivation comes as choices between doing homework at night and risking eyesight, and studying under flickering kerosene lamps.

Claveria is not covered by the National Electrification Administration, so the municipal government produces electricity through diesel-powered generators.

As pump price of diesel fuel skyrockets along with the cost of transporting it to Burias, the price of electricity has soared to P21 per kilowatt, on top of the minimum P300 per household consumer.

The municipal government struggles to address the need for electricity. It has few other sources of income aside from the internal revenue allotment (IRA) from the national government.

As a result, it can only supply power to the town proper and two neighboring villages every night, from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.  A larger part, or 19 of the 22 barangays, remains without electricity. More aptly, having electricity was never an experience in Peñafrancia, Osmeña, Quezon, San Vicente, Taguilid, Mabiton, Canomay, Boca Engaño, Buyo, Nabasagan, Pasig, San Ramon, Albasan, Mababang Baybay, Imelda, Cawayan, Calpi, Nonoc and San Isidro.

Those who cannot afford the rate run their own generator sets, but only at nighttime or on weekends. And to save further, they only switch on a few appliances.

“Low-income families cannot afford generators. Instead, they use ‘lampara’ (kerosene lamps),” says Glicerio Esquilla, guidance counselor and teacher at San Isidro National High School, 15 kilometers from the town proper.

The situation is the same in the 22 villages of San Pascual. Only nine villages have electricity, tapped for a much shorter duration, from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

(While sharing electricity woes, residents of the two towns hardly see other. Claveria and San Pascual are linked by

40 km of muddy, potholed road.)

San Pascual Mayor Job Willard Rivera says students are forced to do their homework at night alongside kerosene lamps. “Reading in dim light strains the eyes. It impairs the capacity to learn,” Rivera rues.

Another casualty is the chance of residents, especially pupils, to learn basic computer skills.

“In this modern age, computer literacy is a necessity, not a privilege. Computer literacy has been deprived to us because of lack of or not enough electricity,” Rivera says.

Unused computers

Rivera says some schools have been provided computers by the government, but these have not been used because of the power supply problem.

With meager resources, schools cannot operate generator sets to power up the computers and offer computer education, he says.

Aside from severely debilitating education in Burias, the lack of power supply is crippling the local economies.

“We are a cattle-producing town but we cannot engage in meat-processing because we don’t have enough electricity. Even the fishing industry is affected because we buy ice, for instance, from the mainland of Bicol,” Rivera says. Ice is used to extend the shelf life of fish and beef.

Like Claveria, San Pascual, a third-class municipality (annual income: P35 million-P45 million and pop.: 41,736), relies on its IRA and has no excess funds for schools.

Rivera’s sentiments are echoed by Esquilla who laments on the plight of students in San Isidro National High School.

“[The] majority of high school students in San Isidro have no knowledge on computers due to the absence of electricity. They are ignorant even of the basic skills. Even the teachers do not know how to use computers,” he says.

San Pascual, however, is more fortunate than Claveria because its power supply and facilities are owned and produced by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) although the municipal government still takes care of its power distribution. But the rate is also high, so not everyone can afford electricity.

Left out

In Claveria, the power lines and other facilities erected in several “powerless” villages, including San Isidro, are yet to be turned over by its contractor to the Napocor. But the state-owned firm cannot allow the municipal government to operate the facilities.

Mayor Eduardo Andueza says he is planning to buy an additional generator set if funds are available.

Rivera is appealing to President Aquino to look into the “disparity of power supply distribution in the country.”

“Rural electrification should be intensified. There can be no real national progress when some areas are left out,” he says.