Iligan: Cooked in own oil

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / November 4, 2013 / Daily Tribune

Iligan City's social media have raised a barrage against a columnist of a smaller Manila broadsheet who chastised them for opposing an Iligan City council's sale of two Build-Operate-Transfer power plants. These plants were turned over from the National Power Corp. — valued at almost P2.5 billion — and sold for only P300 million despite a higher bid of P500 million (with the balance turned into bonuses for awarding officials?).

The two power plants in question were originally owned by the same stockholders of the present receiving company. But worst for Iligan City is the renewed owners' claim that the plants' rehabilitation plus acquisition cost amounting to P1.318 billion should now form the new rate base. However, going by the estimate submitted by power plant manufacturer Wärtsilä to another bidder, the rehab cost should only be P36 million.

The first of these two power plants, by the way, was the first and only Independent Power Producer (IPP) contract for Mindanao signed by then President Cory Aquino two days before she turned over the reins of government to Fidel V. Ramos in 1992. It was a midnight deal signed by the "incorruptible" Cory favoring a longtime family friend (or crony, as others would say), the Alcantaras.

That was at a time when there were no power shortages in Mindanao except for a regular 15-year cycle of rain shortfall, which excuse was made for signing the unneeded power contract.

FVR, whose father Narciso Ramos worked for the same people, later even hurriedly awarded a second unnecessary IPP contract to the Alcantaras.
Iligan City, home of the famed Maria Cristina Falls and the giant Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, had no power crisis in the 1990s. Even today, its shortfall is around only 10 megawatts; yet the plants that are to address it have a combined 100-MW capacity.

Power rates in Iligan City had always been the cheapest in Mindanao. Now, those rates will double due to the overpriced rehabilitated power plants.
Set up in 1992, the plants were hardly used — "broken-in" for 16,000 hours and subsequently operated for just 700 hours a year — literally brand new but sold for scrap. The buyer even got P60 million worth of oil in the plants' fuel tanks for free. Thus, Iligan City residents are really being cooked in their own oil.
So much for the "incorruptible" post-Marcos governments led by Cory Aquino: Her legacy of cronyism continues to this day as evidenced by the sale of Iligan City's IDPP-1 and IDPP-2.

The Save Iligan Movement, People Against Crime and Corruption (SIMPACC), through efforts of oppositor and intervenor Uriel Borja, has filed a fully documented complaint at the Ombudsman against officials of the Iligan City Council, including former mayor Lawrence Cruz and former Vice Mayor Henry Dy, as well as former councilors Chonilo Ruiz and Jose Zalsos, together with Tirso Santillan Jr., CEO of Conal Holdlings Corp. (which bought the two power plants for Iligan City). Also included among the respondents is the Commission on Audit (CoA), led by its chairman, Grace Pulido-Tan, and one of its commissioners, Heidi Mendoza.
The Ombudsman had ordered the respondents to submit their answers to the complaint, including a demand for the immediate suspension of the city council officials involved.

The Ombudsman's action naturally panicked Iligan City's council officials as well as the officers of the company, who must have instigated some of their paid media in Manila to begin their propaganda against the filing of the case. The columnist of a small Manila-based newspaper lambasted the concerned citizens for allegedly creating a situation in Iligan City akin to the damage inflicted of late by the Moro National Liberation Front.

Truthfully, while Zamboanga City may recover in time, Iligan City will suffer an unjust power rate base for decades on end if this "Con-al" deal isn't scrapped.
The Philippine government and the City of Iligan have lost billions upon billions from the series of "con" games played by various cronies of successive Yellow regimes of Cory Aquino, FVR, Gloria Arroyo, and now BS Aquino III. All these have been carried out in connivance with the corrupt political gofers at all levels of the endemically corrupt political system, including the incorrigibly partisan and politicized CoA to which BS Aquino III has personally appointed subservient minions.

The only hope left for the Republic is "citizens' action," as seen in the spirited struggle of Iligan City's residents, and for the rest of the nation to join in on the revolution.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch "Iligan City power struggle" on GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Skycable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)