Determined to bring light to the South, President Arroyo declared Thursday that there is power shortage in Mindanao, adopting the recommendation of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes to invoke Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA).

But President Arroyo's action still keeps Mindanao in the dark as any step taken to address the crisis under Section 71 of EPIRA needs the approval of Congress which is now on recess and may only convene if the Chief Executive calls for a special session.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles said in a television interview that Reyes will have to spell out clearly to Congress the kind of powers they want the august body to give to the President to address the Mindanao power crisis aside from the powers which they were granted by the EPIRA.

Section 71 of the EPIRA law authorizes
the President to call Congress to a special session and come up with a joint resolution giving the President certain powers to come up with measures
to address power crisis.

Nograles added that Reyes should be ready to answer why the Department of Energy (DoE) was not able to contain the energy crisis despite the powers granted to the agency by the EPIRA.

With the consent given by the President, the government is expected to implement contingency measures to resolve the power outages in Mindanao subject to congressional conditions.

Among the measures earlier proposed by Reyes are leasing of power barges, operation and maintenance of two diesel plants, and increased outtake from another privately-owned plant. It is estimated to cost from P8 billion to P10 billion.

“Yes, I am adopting the recommendations,” the President told reporters in the Palace, when asked if she has approved the proposal of Reyes to address the debilitating power shortfall in the South.

The President added that she would hold a meeting with her new Cabinet in Sulu province amid the power shortfall gripping Mindanao. The newly appointed Cabinet members, led by Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza, would also be presented to the media during the meeting, she said.

Last week, Reyes asked the President to declare the existence of a “power crisis” in Mindanao to enable the government to invoke Section 71 of EPIRA to authorize additional generating capacity for Mindanao, subject to congressional conditions.

In his proposal, Reyes said the government could also lease or purchase generator sets (gensets) and barges, and negotiate short-term power supply contracts to boost the generating capacity of Mindanao.

The recommendations of Reyes include the lease-rental of 160 megawatt gensets; operation and maintenance of Alsons Corp.’s 30-mW Iligan Diesel Power Plant 1 (IDPP), and operation and maintenance pact with Alsons Corp. for the 70mW IDPP2.

Reyes also recommended forging a contract on an additional five mW from Southern Philippines Power Corp. which is jointly owned by Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Conal Holdings Corp., and Tomen Power Corp. of Singapore.

Malacañang, meantime, appealed to the public to keep an open mind on all energy options, including nuclear power, amid reports the government is planning to construct two new nuclear power plants.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said the President’s reported letter of intent to sign a deal with a South Korean firm to build two nuclear power plants was “very tentative and prelim feeler from us.”

The President’s letter was supposedly delivered by Rep. Mark Cojuangco to the Ministry of Knowledge in South Korea based on news reports.

“Letters of intent are the weakest form of business undertaking, and Rep. Cojuangco is not even in the Executive branch. I suggest we view this mainly as an opportunity for us to learn more about the nuclear energy option,” Olivar said.

“Carbon- based sources are falling out of favor, many renewable energy technologies are still not commercial in scale; meanwhile we face a looming power deficit. Let's put away our ideologies and dispassionately review what's available from all modern technologies, including nuclear,” he added.

Amid the debate on how to mitigate the power problem in Mindanao, the President early this week said she prefers the development and use of wind power to hydropower to cover the country’s energy requirements.

“I don’t like hydropower, especially the big ones, because when you have El Niño they don’t work, like what’s happening now in Mindanao,” she said during a recent visit to Cagayan province.

Reyes, in a recent press conference in the Palace, made clear that he did not recommend to the President the use emergency powers as provided for by the Constitution, but only to invoke Section 71 of the EPIRA. He said the power supply in Mindanao, which mostly relies on hydropower, is caused by the impact of the El Niño phenomenon and not man-made.

Some groups have raised objections to the supposed plan to grant President emergency powers to deal with the Mindanao power situation, stressing that the problem could be resolved within existing authority.

With the current power crisis, Presidential Adviser on Mindanao Affairs Secretary Jesus Dureza said here that Mindanao has to deal with rotating brownouts for now as the government is eyeing the best solution to end the power crisis.

“We must have to contend with rotating brownouts,” Dureza said during a press conference on the ACT for Peace Program here of the Philippine government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the program of which he is the national program director.

He said developments in Mindanao such as the establishment of more malls and mining plants, among others, had not been anticipated to contribute this early to the brownouts being experienced in the area.

As this developed, an ally of former President Joseph Estrada expressed conditional support Thursday for the proposed grant of special powers to President Arroyo supposedly to enable her to effectively address the power crisis besetting Mindanao.

Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Plaza, who is running for senator under Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), said he would support a move to grant president Arroyo special powers if the chief executive could present clear-cut measures on how to solve the Mindanao’s power problem.

Meanwhile, non-government organizations – EmPOWER CONSUMERS, Sulo ng Filipino and the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) – said last Wednesday the national government should make further study regarding EPIRA.

They said EPIRA primarily aims to make the whole energy sector more efficient, thus making power more reliable and cheaper. However, they said EPIRA failed to reach its goals since energy prices soared nine years after it was enacted. (With reports from Madel R. Sabater, Gabby Mabutas, and Carlo S. Suerte Felipe)