COOPERATIVES in Mindanao are making good on their plan to pursue acquiring, rehabilitating and managing the Agus-Pulangi hydropower plants (HEPs) in Bukidnon, one of the island’s main sources of electricity.
Petronilo Ilagan, national president of the National Association of Electric Consumers for Reform (Nasecore), said the cooperatives have all the components needed to buy Agus-Pulangi and operate it.
Ilagan said the cooperatives in Mindanao have the financial resources, the numbers and even the technical expertise to operate the hydropower complex.
Create Mindanao energy cooperative
But for this plan to be realized, the First Mindanao Energy Cooperative (FMEC) should be created first.
The decision to organize FMEC, he said, lies in the hand of the more than three million Mindanao cooperative member-owners.
He said the presence of the hundreds of coop leaders from all over the island during the first Mindanao Power Summit held at the City Tourism Hall last October 30 is proof that the people are taking interest in the acquisition of the HEPs.
“They (cooperatives) have the decision to help the government address the power crisis in Mindanao,” Ilagan said.
He said the FMEC would also become a vehicle for the cooperatives to venture into other social enterprises that would alleviate poverty in Mindanao.
The challenge now, he added, is the opportunity for greater service to the people of Mindanao, and that could only be realized if the cooperatives will be given the chance to buy the Agus-Pulangi HEPs.
“We believe we can get the sympathy of the government because this will be in line with the public-private partnership (PPP) that the government is now implementing and encouraging,” he said.
Operations knowledge
On the question of the operational know-how of the FMEC to run the HEPs, he said the Agus-Pulangi plants’s technical employees belong to cooperatives and they are willing to join the acquisition plan, not to mention former National Power Corporation (NPC) executives and officers are onboard to help address the requirement of technical capability.
Although Department of Energy secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, in his visit to the city on October 30, declared the acquiring of the HEPs is open to any private entities, including the cooperatives, he has cautioned interested takers that the power complex is buried deep in about P10 billion in liabilities.
Whoever will acquire the Agus-Pulangi, what’s important is that the people of Mindanao can benefit from it, Petilla said.
Equipping skills
Last week, selected cooperative leaders from Northern Mindanao attended a workshop facilitated by Ilagan to equip them with the necessary skills in managing the Agus-Pulangi HEPs.
Cooperative Development Authority (CDA)-Northern Mindanao Director Orlando Ravanera said it is high time for the cooperatives to take charge of running its own power-generating facilities.
“Let us now collectively own a key industry like the power generation in Mindanao, because if you have the power, you can also have social enterprises to help the people rise from poverty,” Ravanera said.
He said the next step is for the cooperative leaders to go around Mindanao to hold the same workshop.
By January 2015, power summits will be held in Caraga, Davao, Kidapawan, and Zamboanga areas.
By middle 2015, Ravanera said the cooperatives would be ready to assemble more than 10,000 people and invite President Benigno Aquino III so he could hear the clamor of the people of Mindanao.