|
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Advantages/Disadvantages of a National Gov't Agency (NGA): OWWA
While glued to ‘impeach show’
CONSUMERS' DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
1/30-2/5/2012
While Metro Manila and the Philippine mainstream media are glued to the Corona impeachment trial in the Senate, the thieves are getting away with highway robbery right under the noses of the people. As it has been for the past two-and-a-half decades, the target of this gigantic burglary are the crown jewels of the nation’s energy sector, this time focused on Mindanao’s.
Our fellow power consumer crusader and expert, second generation power distribution company entrepreneur, Mr. Uriel “Jojo” Borja of Iligan Light and Power, has been up in arms over the artificial power crisis in Mindanao being concocted to justify contracting new power generation capacity at double the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the next 25 years.
At present, power generation in Mindanao costs an average of P2.60/kWh, but if the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. were to have their way, this will rise to around P5.00/kWh, almost equal to those of Luzon and Visayas’ generation rates.
Mindanao has traditionally enjoyed half the cost compared to other parts of the country because the bulk of its power supply comes from hydroelectric power plants such as Agus-Pulangui. However, experts have said that the government agencies’ management of these hydroelectric dams and power plants has been a dismal failure due to sheer incompetence or (as others argue) willful neglect.
For one, dredging and de-silting have not been religiously performed, reducing the capacities of these dams, while the scheduling of the release and use of their reserves for power have been suspiciously untimely, exhausting them too early and emptied just as seasonal shortages are expected -- seemingly to justify the frequent DoE “red alerts” on impending power curtailments.
Quite strangely, the DoE has been issuing “red alerts” since 2009, citing expected rainfall shortages from droughts brought about by La Niña. Even though these are repeatedly predicted, Jojo Borja counters that the rains that have come every year have more than defied these predictions.
For instance, 2011 was supposed to be a dry year for Mindanao; but Typhoon “Sendong” came and Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were devastated with a deluge resulting in murderous landslides. I wrote and disputed several weeks ago a power shortage “red alert” issued by the DoE and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the private company that took over government’s transmission grid. Sadly, this is still being repeated today.
Although some parts of Mindanao are said to be experiencing as much as eight-hour brownouts -- much like what Luzon had during Cory Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos’ time, Borja early last week confirmed that what they had noticed in Iligan suddenly ceased (for no explicable reason) a week later.
Some people attribute the brownouts in some areas to lack of power transmission connections, as mentioned over a DWIZ radio morning talk show. But Borja does not see any power supply shortages, and if there are or will be, he says these will only be short-term and will not justify contracting new power plants.
The National Power Corp. (Napocor) has vintage 90s power crisis power barges (PB) lying idle in Luzon, waiting to be utilized for emergencies; but the DoE Secretary Rene Almendras announced again last week that PB 101, 102, 103, and 104 will be sold off by March 2012.
To a normal, rational, and logical mind, Almendras’ plan is absolutely ridiculous. It will only cause the same tragic result as the 2009 sale of PB 117 and 118 to the Aboitizes’ Therma Marine group for $30 million, which it turned around and revalued a few months later at $70 million and used as its rate base for supplying emergency power to Mindanao--thereby horrendously raising the power cost!
As such, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro vehemently objected to the sale of the said power barges in 2009 and continues to object to the present hurried sale. Instead, he calls for the four power barges still owned by government to be transferred to Mindanao to provide emergency power at the lower cost that Napocor provides--a plea that the DoE is seemingly deaf to.
In fact, more than insisting on selling the power barges in March, the DoE has also opened the way for new power plants to be contracted and set up in Mindanao, which is reminiscent of the independent power producers (IPPs) in Luzon of the 90s during Ramos’ time.
As it was back then, these new contracts will surely have “take or pay,” purchased power agreements that consumers will see tacked on to their bills whether they use electricity or not--for the next 20 to 25 years. And so the scam that was inflicted on Luzon in the 90s that has saddled the country with an $18-billion Napocor debt is being inflicted on Mindanao this time.
There is clearly a well-established modus operandi in all this that involves the conspiracy of the international finance mafia, the corrupt political authorities, together with the local and (in this case) Mindanao oligarchy to swindle the people. Make no mistake about it, Malacañang is without doubt a party to all this since such a scheme will not ever fly without its consent.
So we appeal to our dear Filipino consumers and taxpayers: Wake up to the systematic and massive swindle against us by the conspiracy of the ruling oligarchs and their political agents in elected and appointed government positions. Let us train our eyes and our passions on the issues that really matter, and demand the fulfillment of our economic rights, as well as the provision of the people’s basic needs at the least, most constructive, and effective cost.
Let us never be distracted again by the “Weapons of Mass Distraction” provided by the political theater where these tradpols spend hours grandstanding but give nary a day or hour to zero in on the grandest scam of the century--the power rip-off occurring daily in our midst.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Geopolitical crisis on the horizon;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
1/30-2/5/2012
While Metro Manila and the Philippine mainstream media are glued to the Corona impeachment trial in the Senate, the thieves are getting away with highway robbery right under the noses of the people. As it has been for the past two-and-a-half decades, the target of this gigantic burglary are the crown jewels of the nation’s energy sector, this time focused on Mindanao’s.
Our fellow power consumer crusader and expert, second generation power distribution company entrepreneur, Mr. Uriel “Jojo” Borja of Iligan Light and Power, has been up in arms over the artificial power crisis in Mindanao being concocted to justify contracting new power generation capacity at double the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the next 25 years.
At present, power generation in Mindanao costs an average of P2.60/kWh, but if the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. were to have their way, this will rise to around P5.00/kWh, almost equal to those of Luzon and Visayas’ generation rates.
Mindanao has traditionally enjoyed half the cost compared to other parts of the country because the bulk of its power supply comes from hydroelectric power plants such as Agus-Pulangui. However, experts have said that the government agencies’ management of these hydroelectric dams and power plants has been a dismal failure due to sheer incompetence or (as others argue) willful neglect.
For one, dredging and de-silting have not been religiously performed, reducing the capacities of these dams, while the scheduling of the release and use of their reserves for power have been suspiciously untimely, exhausting them too early and emptied just as seasonal shortages are expected -- seemingly to justify the frequent DoE “red alerts” on impending power curtailments.
Quite strangely, the DoE has been issuing “red alerts” since 2009, citing expected rainfall shortages from droughts brought about by La Niña. Even though these are repeatedly predicted, Jojo Borja counters that the rains that have come every year have more than defied these predictions.
For instance, 2011 was supposed to be a dry year for Mindanao; but Typhoon “Sendong” came and Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were devastated with a deluge resulting in murderous landslides. I wrote and disputed several weeks ago a power shortage “red alert” issued by the DoE and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the private company that took over government’s transmission grid. Sadly, this is still being repeated today.
Although some parts of Mindanao are said to be experiencing as much as eight-hour brownouts -- much like what Luzon had during Cory Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos’ time, Borja early last week confirmed that what they had noticed in Iligan suddenly ceased (for no explicable reason) a week later.
Some people attribute the brownouts in some areas to lack of power transmission connections, as mentioned over a DWIZ radio morning talk show. But Borja does not see any power supply shortages, and if there are or will be, he says these will only be short-term and will not justify contracting new power plants.
The National Power Corp. (Napocor) has vintage 90s power crisis power barges (PB) lying idle in Luzon, waiting to be utilized for emergencies; but the DoE Secretary Rene Almendras announced again last week that PB 101, 102, 103, and 104 will be sold off by March 2012.
To a normal, rational, and logical mind, Almendras’ plan is absolutely ridiculous. It will only cause the same tragic result as the 2009 sale of PB 117 and 118 to the Aboitizes’ Therma Marine group for $30 million, which it turned around and revalued a few months later at $70 million and used as its rate base for supplying emergency power to Mindanao--thereby horrendously raising the power cost!
As such, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro vehemently objected to the sale of the said power barges in 2009 and continues to object to the present hurried sale. Instead, he calls for the four power barges still owned by government to be transferred to Mindanao to provide emergency power at the lower cost that Napocor provides--a plea that the DoE is seemingly deaf to.
In fact, more than insisting on selling the power barges in March, the DoE has also opened the way for new power plants to be contracted and set up in Mindanao, which is reminiscent of the independent power producers (IPPs) in Luzon of the 90s during Ramos’ time.
As it was back then, these new contracts will surely have “take or pay,” purchased power agreements that consumers will see tacked on to their bills whether they use electricity or not--for the next 20 to 25 years. And so the scam that was inflicted on Luzon in the 90s that has saddled the country with an $18-billion Napocor debt is being inflicted on Mindanao this time.
There is clearly a well-established modus operandi in all this that involves the conspiracy of the international finance mafia, the corrupt political authorities, together with the local and (in this case) Mindanao oligarchy to swindle the people. Make no mistake about it, Malacañang is without doubt a party to all this since such a scheme will not ever fly without its consent.
So we appeal to our dear Filipino consumers and taxpayers: Wake up to the systematic and massive swindle against us by the conspiracy of the ruling oligarchs and their political agents in elected and appointed government positions. Let us train our eyes and our passions on the issues that really matter, and demand the fulfillment of our economic rights, as well as the provision of the people’s basic needs at the least, most constructive, and effective cost.
Let us never be distracted again by the “Weapons of Mass Distraction” provided by the political theater where these tradpols spend hours grandstanding but give nary a day or hour to zero in on the grandest scam of the century--the power rip-off occurring daily in our midst.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Geopolitical crisis on the horizon;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, January 30, 2012
RP drone base
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
1/30/2012
As I wrote last December 2011, the “useful idiot” is pursuing his autocratic mission for the master albeit very ineptly in all aspects but one — kowtowing to everything the US ultra-war hawks want. But in everything else, the idiot is bumbling along and nobody knows if he will get through to getting the preliminary steps done at all.
The idiot’s first step toward consolidating his autocratic power has been a disaster as the public perception of his impeachment crusade against the Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) has stalled badly, with inept prosecutors, the ridicule from senator-judges, and simple defense panel legal repartees to prosecution offensives.
Mainstream media have tried their best to support the idiot; but they themselves look idiotic with headlines (such as “100 witnesses against Chief Justice Corona”) to help the anti-CJ psy-war that end up making the CJ really look like the oppressed underdog.
Still, no matter how wanting they all are, the idiot and his cohorts are really making great strides in opening the Philippines to future regional conflict by inviting US bases back!
The day after reports came out about the idiot’s invitation, the US responds with headlines here that say, “US lauds troops offer but won’t return bases.” After the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) lie to justify the mission attacking Iraq (“Enduring Freedom”) and the R2P (Right to Protect) “No Fly Zone” in Libya, which became a merciless bombing campaign of civilian population centers — with estimated civilian deaths running to 50,000 — do they expect Filipinos and the world to just take their word for it?
Like Bill Clinton who once said “I did not have sex with that woman” despite Monica Lewinsky having serviced him, the US State Department can say “no troops bases” with a straight face because it will not be troop bases but military drone bases that will be set up in the Philippines while our Armed Forces personnel are used as cannon fodder, with antiquated and defenseless Hamilton cutters and an F-16 squadron designed to lure the regional “enemy” into a flimsy US ruse.
One hears even “progressive” intellectuals make the alibi for a revival of US presence in the region on the pretext that China will be a superpower soon to replace US imperialism. But that is a superficial thesis. The era of one, overarching superpower monopolizing the world or a region is a thing of the past in this present solidly multi-polar world.
China can never hope to be an overbearing imperialist power even if it wanted to because the other centers of power in the region (such as India, Russia and emerging ones like Indonesia, as well as others like Brazil in Latin America) will no longer allow any such singular power to dominate.
The only one that is aspiring to reestablish its slipping status as the singular superpower in the world after the fall of the Soviet Union is the US. With its lapdog North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), it has tried to start its “Project for a New American Century” with little success, sputtering in Iraq and Afghanistan—already being described as the new “Vietnams.”
Even in Libya, the US-Nato’s R2P victim is now turning out to be a liability to the Western powers as anti-imperialist movements have begun to fight back. Last week the anti-National Transition Council (NTC) forces retook Bani Walid and drove out Nato’s useful idiots (who are getting paid the pieces of silver promised them while $100 billion of Libya’s reserves, which were frozen during the anti-Gaddafi campaign, are sitting in US, French, Italian and other Western banks). Only idiots can believe these Western powers and agree to work under them.
This week Iran may impose its oil ban on the European Union (EU) to preempt any US-EU oil embargo threats, crippling the EU (and us in the process) while India and China will stop using US dollars to buy oil from Iran and use currency swaps and gold. And as South Korea and Japan are not expected to comply with the Western oil embargo, the US is now fast becoming a paper tiger, with the world much better off with the many powers emerging.
As such, the Philippines should stop the US’ useful idiot here from pushing this country into an unwanted conflict with China. Vietnam is now in solid negotiations with China for a fair sharing of the bounties of the South China Sea.
David Brown writes in Asia Times, “Even more surprising is that … based on a legal regime and principles defined by international law, including the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (Unclos), Vietnam and China would ‘make efforts to seek basic and long-term solutions acceptable to both sides for sea-related disputes’… ‘actively discuss(ing) co-operation for mutual development.’”
Last Jan. 27, Boris Volkhonsky wrote on GlobalResearch that “First of all, a network of special operation bases and the use of drones signify that the US would be able to attack any adversary anywhere, not bothering too much about whether they are attacking a sovereign state… Sources say that the US plans to use such bases in Australia and in the Philippines, which reflects a new emphasis Washington is laying on confronting China along its eastern borders. With drones and special bases being deployed all over the globe and especially in the vicinity of such a sensitive area as the South China Sea, it gives the US new opportunities to further alienate an unlimited number of nations.”
So even as the real game is now shaping up to be allowing “drone bases” at various points in the Philippines, the useful idiot in Malacañang still will not take his cue from this — useful idiot indeed!
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “US drone bases in the Philippines;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
1/30/2012
As I wrote last December 2011, the “useful idiot” is pursuing his autocratic mission for the master albeit very ineptly in all aspects but one — kowtowing to everything the US ultra-war hawks want. But in everything else, the idiot is bumbling along and nobody knows if he will get through to getting the preliminary steps done at all.
The idiot’s first step toward consolidating his autocratic power has been a disaster as the public perception of his impeachment crusade against the Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) has stalled badly, with inept prosecutors, the ridicule from senator-judges, and simple defense panel legal repartees to prosecution offensives.
Mainstream media have tried their best to support the idiot; but they themselves look idiotic with headlines (such as “100 witnesses against Chief Justice Corona”) to help the anti-CJ psy-war that end up making the CJ really look like the oppressed underdog.
Still, no matter how wanting they all are, the idiot and his cohorts are really making great strides in opening the Philippines to future regional conflict by inviting US bases back!
The day after reports came out about the idiot’s invitation, the US responds with headlines here that say, “US lauds troops offer but won’t return bases.” After the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) lie to justify the mission attacking Iraq (“Enduring Freedom”) and the R2P (Right to Protect) “No Fly Zone” in Libya, which became a merciless bombing campaign of civilian population centers — with estimated civilian deaths running to 50,000 — do they expect Filipinos and the world to just take their word for it?
Like Bill Clinton who once said “I did not have sex with that woman” despite Monica Lewinsky having serviced him, the US State Department can say “no troops bases” with a straight face because it will not be troop bases but military drone bases that will be set up in the Philippines while our Armed Forces personnel are used as cannon fodder, with antiquated and defenseless Hamilton cutters and an F-16 squadron designed to lure the regional “enemy” into a flimsy US ruse.
One hears even “progressive” intellectuals make the alibi for a revival of US presence in the region on the pretext that China will be a superpower soon to replace US imperialism. But that is a superficial thesis. The era of one, overarching superpower monopolizing the world or a region is a thing of the past in this present solidly multi-polar world.
China can never hope to be an overbearing imperialist power even if it wanted to because the other centers of power in the region (such as India, Russia and emerging ones like Indonesia, as well as others like Brazil in Latin America) will no longer allow any such singular power to dominate.
The only one that is aspiring to reestablish its slipping status as the singular superpower in the world after the fall of the Soviet Union is the US. With its lapdog North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), it has tried to start its “Project for a New American Century” with little success, sputtering in Iraq and Afghanistan—already being described as the new “Vietnams.”
Even in Libya, the US-Nato’s R2P victim is now turning out to be a liability to the Western powers as anti-imperialist movements have begun to fight back. Last week the anti-National Transition Council (NTC) forces retook Bani Walid and drove out Nato’s useful idiots (who are getting paid the pieces of silver promised them while $100 billion of Libya’s reserves, which were frozen during the anti-Gaddafi campaign, are sitting in US, French, Italian and other Western banks). Only idiots can believe these Western powers and agree to work under them.
This week Iran may impose its oil ban on the European Union (EU) to preempt any US-EU oil embargo threats, crippling the EU (and us in the process) while India and China will stop using US dollars to buy oil from Iran and use currency swaps and gold. And as South Korea and Japan are not expected to comply with the Western oil embargo, the US is now fast becoming a paper tiger, with the world much better off with the many powers emerging.
As such, the Philippines should stop the US’ useful idiot here from pushing this country into an unwanted conflict with China. Vietnam is now in solid negotiations with China for a fair sharing of the bounties of the South China Sea.
David Brown writes in Asia Times, “Even more surprising is that … based on a legal regime and principles defined by international law, including the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (Unclos), Vietnam and China would ‘make efforts to seek basic and long-term solutions acceptable to both sides for sea-related disputes’… ‘actively discuss(ing) co-operation for mutual development.’”
Last Jan. 27, Boris Volkhonsky wrote on GlobalResearch that “First of all, a network of special operation bases and the use of drones signify that the US would be able to attack any adversary anywhere, not bothering too much about whether they are attacking a sovereign state… Sources say that the US plans to use such bases in Australia and in the Philippines, which reflects a new emphasis Washington is laying on confronting China along its eastern borders. With drones and special bases being deployed all over the globe and especially in the vicinity of such a sensitive area as the South China Sea, it gives the US new opportunities to further alienate an unlimited number of nations.”
So even as the real game is now shaping up to be allowing “drone bases” at various points in the Philippines, the useful idiot in Malacañang still will not take his cue from this — useful idiot indeed!
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “US drone bases in the Philippines;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
