BELIEVING it can help stabilize the power situation in Mindanao, the cooperative sector has bared plans to acquire the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power plants (HEPs).
Challenges such as the liabilities that may come in running these HEPs will not stop the cooperative members from taking interest in their acquisition, said regional director Orlando Ravanera of the Cooperative Development Authority-10 (CDA-10).
“It’s about time that people will own and manage their own resources. We’ll start with power and everything will fall into place. We are ready,” Ravanera said in an exclusive interview with this paper Friday evening.
He said the cooperatives in Northern Mindanao have started the ball rolling when their leaders and representatives gathered during the Regional Power Summit held Thursday here.
Ravanera said an entity called the Mindanao Energy Cooperative has already been created and it has the support of the cooperatives in the island.
At present, Mindanao has about 4,700 cooperatives, with almost three million members, and some P101 billion in total assets.
Major bump
Although Petilla is open to the idea of the cooperative sector operating and managing the Agus-Pulangi HEPs, he has cautioned of a major bump along the way: the more than P10 billion—by Psalm estimate—in liabilities through unpaid electric bills that have the power utility companies all over Mindanao scratching their heads.
Petilla said these billions of pesos in liabilities would become a stumbling block for the cooperatives should they push through with running the HEPs.
But Ravanera said this financial concern should not pose a problem for the cooperatives since the sheer number of their members would ensure that whatever liabilities that go with the acquisition of the Agus-Pulangi will be solved in no time.
He said that water and electricity, being considered as “means to life,” should be collectively owned and not controlled by a few.
If the people are the owners, Ravanera said, the focus would not only be on running these HEPs but also on rehabilitating the watershed around the province of Bukidnon and de-silting the dam.
“You do not separate the (Agus-Pulangi) dam from the watershed” since they are part of one ecosystem, he said.
Ravanera said that according to a study, the Agus-Pulangi power complexes have not been fully optimized, adding that these HEPs can generate as much as 1,000 megawatts.
The fear that the cooperatives lack the technical expertise in running the HEPs is not a hindrance for them to operate these power plants, as this is easy to learn, Ravanera said.
“Do not underestimate the power of the people to manage their own resources,” he added.
Ravanera said the plan to take over the ownership of Agus-Pulangi is also in preparation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) integration in 2015 where other member-countries can invest, and therefore have control of the power industry.
He said if the cooperatives own and operate the HEPs, they also have the economic and social power.
“Ownership of power is in itself an empowerment,” he added.
Ravanera said early next year, another summit will be held in the regions of Caraga, Zamboanga, Davao and back here in the city with thousands of cooperative leaders and members expected to be in attendance.