A manufactured crisis?

"And all at the expense of Zamboangueños."

Recent developments on the issue of the power crisis in Zamboanga City suggest that Zamboangueños are being used as pawns for business interests in the city.

Lately, Zamboangueños have seen a constant stream of power outages. These have been blamed on the supposed inability of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) to effectively administer the city’s power resources. But a closer look at the issue indicates that there is far more to the story than meets the eye.

With Crown Investment Holdings and Desco Inc. now at the helm, Zamcelco discovered through a financial audit that WMPC had been overbilling the cooperative for the past three years. It was overcharging the cooperative for capital recovery fees and operation and management, pursuant, supposedly, to a power supply agreement that has not taken effect yet to this day. 

The overcharged balance has reached P441 million, making up a considerable fraction of Zamcelco’s total debts. Demanding that the cooperative pay it back, WMPC gave an ultimatum: Pay them, or they will cut the city’s supply of power. Crown-Desco asked for more time to review the overbillng, but a few days later, WMPC shut off the power supply, claiming “depleted resources” and affecting thousands of households.

Nonetheless, through the insistence of City Mayor Beng Climaco, Crown-Desco tried to offer P150 million as partial payment under protest that can constitute a fund that WMPC can use to generate enough electricity to normalize the power situation in Zamboanga. Despite knowing how this will affect Zamboangueños, WMPC did not accept this compromise.

This serves to exacerbate the negative public image of Zamcelco, which has already suffered years of power outages prior to Crown-Desco’s management. However, this time, the power “crisis” seems to be entirely engineered to benefit the “aggrieved” party, WMPC, which stands to profit from this urgent issue.

Insiders have reported that WMPC, and its parent company Alsons Power, has been trying to agitate the public to mobilize against Zamcelco through protests and rallies—for a problem they themselves may have created. This gives the perfect avenue for Zamboangueños to voice their demand for new power suppliers, after seeing Zamcelco’s supposed incapability to provide the city’s electricity needs.

This is no coincidence, considering Alsons Power—the rumor mill attests—is planning to put its mothballed San Ramon Coal Plant in operation soon. When is a more opportune time than during a power crisis?

More than willing to do its part in addressing the shortage, Zamcelco has already provided 24 megawatts of emergency power following WMPC’s cutting of supply, on top of the P150-million fund it offered to jumpstart WMPC’s power generation.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast, Alsons Power and WMPC seem to be looking at this public issue as a new stream of income—all at the expense of Zamboangueños.

* * *

Keep sage but be responsible.

As the country had been struck by three tremors within 48 hours, almost every netizen in this part of the world has been posting about—what else—the quake, its impact, the damages, call for prayers and support, and of course, their own personal experience.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, we appreciate those kind of postings to help us get updates as it complements the reporting of the mainstream media.

 But what is despicable is how some of these keyboard journalists have become overnight experts on earthquakes, warning everyone that quakes which had struck the Philippines the past 48 hours, are prelude to the Big One.

This is the height of irresponsibility. No one can predict an earthquake. Had earthquakes been predictable, we would have minimized if not totally avoided the casualties everytime a quake strikes.

Be responsible, please.