Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Ong: Coal: For development or for profit? By Ted Aldwin Ong Misreadings
THE proponent of the coal plant led by Global Business Power Corporation's engineer Adrian Moncada and its lead consultant, media hotshot Lemuel Fernandez, was salivating over local radio trying to downplay Melvin Purzuelo's claims against the dirty project.
This is not the first time that I have heard the Moncada-Fernandez tandem for they have been parading over the media to spread the news that their proposed project will ultimately solve the "power crisis."
According to them, this project will provide stable electricity and bring down electricity rates - factors that will propel the development of Iloilo.
I am not sure if engineer Moncada and Lemuel Fernandez are the right persons to discuss about Iloilo City's development. It is puzzling because even Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and the brilliant Vice Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog do not have a clear discussion of their development agenda. Now we have Moncada and Fernandez talking about it as if they know better the kind of development fitted for Iloilo City.
According to Moncada and Fernandez, the anti-coal campaigners are obstructionists to development. Adding, if the Ilonggo people will block the construction of their project, this will result in power shortage and rotating power interruptions.
This has been the arrogant claim of power industry players and their paid hacks.
Their arrogance is tantamount to abuse of market power. This is a direct result of the monopoly of power industry players like the GBPC in the generation sector and Panay Electric Company in the distribution sector. They can just ring the bells of power blackout anytime they want a favorable decision.
Listening to Moncada and Fernandez talk about the billions of pesos of investments poured in by GBPC on Iloilo's power sector seems to give an idea that the Ilonggo people owe it to them or that without the billions of investments from their company Iloilo might just be another rural city without electricity.
I want the Ilonggos to realize that GBPC, the company being represented by Moncada and Fernandez are here in Iloilo because they are aware that their billions of pesos in investments are worth investing here because they can rake equally billions of pesos in profits.
Capitalists and businessmen do not just pour in billions of capital to a place by the simple reason that they like the place. They pour in capital because they are assured of recouping investments. In the Philippine setting, this is measured by looking into the factors that makes it favorable and convenient to capitalists-businessmen. I think we are not naïve anymore and just believe that the GBPC's Moncada and Fernandez are here in Iloilo by sheer good intentions of propelling development, they are here to double whatever amount of their investments.
They are here because they are assured of profits. They are here because the factors that come to play are convenient for them - they have a captured market which can easily be abused, they have politicians that do not have a clear development agenda; they have a Mayor and a Vice-Mayor that easily follows their tune every time they sound the bells of power shortage, and; they have the business community that thinks the same way as they do.
I believe it is absurd for Moncada and Fernandez to point fingers to groups that oppose the entry of their pet project as obstructionists to development because this is not about development in the first place - this is about profits. This is about the projected billions of income for GBPC and for Moncada and Fernandez once pursued.
If our politicians are not even champions of development when in essence they are public servants, what makes Moncada and Fernandez better than our politicians when both are servants of capitalist-business? Development is nowhere to be found in the vocabulary of capitalists-businessmen but profits are. Comments to: tao.kolumnista@gmail.com)
