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Rotating brownouts stretch to 4 hours

Monday, 23 April 2012 00:00

GENERAL SANTOS City--The daily brownouts here and in nearby South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces has stretched to four hours on Thursday as Mindanao's power defi cit increased to 276 megawatts (MW) due to the ongoing rehabilitation of the National Power Corporation's (NPC) Pulangi IV hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon. Engr. Joseph Yanga, South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (Socoteco II) technical services supervisor, said they were forced to extend the rotating brownouts in the area to four hours from the previous three hours and 15 minutes due to the additional power supply cuts imposed by the NPC and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). From its average contracted supply of 72 MW, he said the NPC further reduced the area's allocation earlier this month to 54 MW or 51 MW short from its 105 MW peak requirement. Aboitiz-owned Therma Marine Inc. augments the area's requirement by 30 MW based on a supply contract earlier forged by Socoteco II. "(But) for today, the NPC is only giving us 45 MW. That leaves us short by 30 MW so we really have no other choice but extend the rotating brownouts," Yanga said.

Based on an advisory issued by Socoteco II's institutional services department, it would implement the rotating brownouts in four phases from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. based on the distribution of its 44 feeder stations. Socoteco II serves this city, the entire Sarangani province and the municipalities of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato. NGCP imposed drastic load cuts since February due to the rising power supply shortage in Mindanao that reportedly stemmed from the dwindling capacity of the NPC's hydroelectric plants in Bukinon and Lanao del Norte. As of 6 a.m. Thursday, the NGCP said Mindanao's system capacity only stands at 955 MW or 276 MW short from its peak demand of 1,231 MW. The electric cooperative, which has been implementing two-hour daily rotating brownouts since last month, initially issued an advisory increasing the power curtailments to three hours and 15 minutes last Tuesday until the end of the month due to the scheduled shutdown of the Pulangi plant to undergo a month-long repair and rehabilitation. Yanga said they have scrapped the previous advisory and will instead issue daily notices to its consumers due to the uncertainty of the NPC's power generation capacity.

"The allocations from the NPC and NGCP presently changes on a daily basis and there were also unanticipated supply fl uctuations happening from time to time within the Mindanao grid," he said. He cited, as example, the cutoff from the Mindanao power grid of the 55-MW bunker fi red power station of the Southern Philippines Power Corp. (SPPC) based in Alabel, Sarangani that covers for a portion of the NPC's power supplies to the area. Yanga said they expect the area's power situation to stabilize towards the end of May when the rehabilitation of Pulangi IV will be completed. By then, he said the NPC committed to restore the area's allocation to 72 MW and increase it further to 74 MW by July. PNA

Operatives seize P9M ‘bad grass’ in Central Mindanao

Wednesday, 18 April 2012 00:00

MALUNGON, Sarangani - Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12 backed by soldiers and policemen destroyed P9M worth of marijuana plants in Sitio Ulo Bila, a remote tribal village that is located near the contested triangular boundaries of South Cotabato, Sarangani and Davao del Sur. PDEA-12 director Aileen Lovitos, in a telephone interview on Sunday said that the eradication of 8, 200 fully grown marijuana plants Thursday is considered to be one of the 'biggest' PDEA feat in its fi ght against the proliferation of illicit drugs in Central Mindanao Region.

Offi cials said the increasing volume in the seizure of marijuana plants as compared to last year's devastation of more or less P2M-worth marijuana weeds in Brgy. Malabod, Malungon, Sarangani is of lucid indication that the government's campaign against 'cannavis sativa' in this part of the country is increasingly gaining its ground. "Because the of distance, highly elevated settings, and intricacy of its terrain, we have no other choice but to torch down the more or less 8, 000 hills (number of eradicated plants) of uprooted weeds para hindi na talaga ito talaga mabuhay pati na ang mga seeds nito. But our operating team and its police and military support groups have able to haul back with them at least 200 pieces of fully grown marijuana plants that will be use during our planned ceremonial burning in Gen. Santos City," Lovitos explained.

A reliable source within the operating government troops, said aside from those marijuana plants that are presumed to be being taken cared of by their unknown farm handlers, some of these weeds were later discovered to be growing underneath the huge fallen trees, deep ravines, forested areas and even right inside the corn fi elds. 'Our group failed to arrest any of the suspected marijuana planters,' said the source, as he presumes that the suspects could have already abandoned the area after sensing the approaching band of law enforcers. Meanwhile, aside from Mayor Reynaldo F. Constantino, Lovitos also expressed her gratitude to all the support that was stressed by the AFP, 1002nd Infantry Brigade, Army's 72nd (Foxtrot) Company, and the local police force.

In the midst of the intensifi ed anti-drug campaign, Constantino have again ordered the spraying of additional round-up herbicide chemicals in the area to control its fallen seeds from growing, and likewise destroy the remaining seedlings that were left by the searching authorities. 'As to what I have said, I want my municipality to be freed from the fi gurative talons of illicit drug and marijuana pushers, for I am always willing to do everything to get rid of them," said Constantino, as he lauded the entire PDEA-12 hierarchy for a Job well done. (ipp).

By GIE MASCARDO

DILG removes town mayor

Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:00

GENERAL SANTOS City--The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) removed from office on Monday the sitting mayor of Maasim town in Sarangani province as it implemented a Supreme Court ruling nullifying the latter's proclamation due to the erroneous canvassing of votes in the area in the May 2010 elections. Acting on a directive issued by DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, DILG-Sarangani Director Flor Limpin, Jr. ordered Maasim Mayor Jose Zamorro to immediately vacate his post as well as to "cease and desist" from performing his duties and functions as mayor. Limpin, who was accompanied by provincial Commission on Elections (Comelec) and police officials, handed over the DILG Secretary's directive to Zamorro following the municipal government's regular flag-raising ceremony at around 8:30 a.m.

He immediately installed Maasim Vice Mayor Uttoh Salem Cutan as the town's acting mayor and Councilor Romeo Villacura as acting vice mayor based on the "rules on succession" as provided for under Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991. "Effective today, Cutan is (officially) the acting mayor of Maasim," he told reporters after Cutan's installation. Limpin said his office will issue another order recognizing the signatures of Cutan in connection with various transactions involving the Office of the Mayor of Maasim.

The implementation of the DILG directive came amid protests at the municipal government grounds staged by around 300 supporters of Zamorro, who refused to heed his removal from offi ce claiming his camp has not yet received the official copy of such document. Zamorro told reporters that he will continue with his duties as Maasim mayor until the Comelec reconvenes the municipal board of canvassers, corrects the canvassing errors and proclaim the winning mayor. "I'm willing to vacate the office of the mayor but it should be done on the right and lawful manner," he said. In a resolution issued on October 4 last year, the Supreme Court en banc "denied with fi nality" Zamorro's appeal over a ruling issued in May by the Comelec en banc, which nullified his proclamation as Maasim mayor due to acknowledged errors in the results of the May 10, 2010 elections in the area.

The court issued another resolution on November 15, 2011 ruling to "note without action" the strong opposition fi led by the Zamorro camp to the October decision. The Maasim municipal board of canvassers (MBOC) proclaimed Zamorro, who was an independent candidate, as the winning mayor of Maasim after receiving 5,321 votes, edging his closest rival, then outgoing provincial board member Arturo Lawa, who got 5,306 votes. But Comelec records showed that the MBOC failed to properly count the votes cast in clustered precinct number 21 of Barangay Kablakan in Maasim after the assigned precinct count optical scan or PCOS machine in the area transmitted the wrong results to the election server. Local coordinators of automation firm Smartmatic- TIM, which was contracted by the Comelec to assist in the conduct of the computerized elections, noted that the MBOC erroneously canvassed the nine votes cast during the mock elections or the testing and sealing of the deployed PCOS machine and not the actual votes cast during the May 10 automated elections.

In the certified election returns from the precinct, Lawa received 136 votes while Zamorro only had 62 votes. Jose Alvin Quinanola, acting Sarangani election supervisor, told reporters that they have already submitted a memorandum to the Comelec central office recommending approval for the immediate convening of a special MBOC that would handle the re-canvassing of votes and the proclamation of Lawa as Maasim's winning mayor. "We're still waiting for the response from the Comelec en banc on the matter," he said. But the official advised Zamorro to comply with the DILG ruling, which he described as "final and executory."

Meantime, acting Mayor Cutan said he will immediately call for separate meetings with the municipal government's department heads to "set the town's affairs in order." "I'm also calling on Mr. Zamorro to respect the law and allow our municipality to move on from this," he said. Cutan said they "will allow for now" the protests staged by Zamorro's supporters but he vowed to implement the "full force of the law" should they resort to actions that would hamper the local government's operations. Limpin said it is now up to Cutan to decide on appropriate actions regarding the protests and Zamorro's refusal to vacate the mayor's office. "He has the power and authority to decide and act on these matters based on his duties as acting mayor that includes the maintenance of peace and order here," he said. PNA

BY ALLEN ESTABILLO

Transport groups to join March 15 strike

Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:00

GENERAL SANTOS City--Transport groups here and nearby provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato are preparing to launch a massive transport strike on Thursday in the wake of the continuing increase in fuel prices. Larry Villegas, chair of the Transport Integrated for Restructuring of Economic Services (Tires) said they decided to stage a strike to protest the series of oil price hikes and appeal to the national government to act on the matter. "We're calling on the government to scrap the VAT (value-added tax) on fuel to help ease our present situation," he said in the vernacular. Villegas, who also heads the South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos chapter of national transport group Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Transport Operators Nationwide (PISTON), said they are presently coordinating with other transport organizations in the area to join the planned strike. In this city, he said the strike will start at around 4 a.m. in various choke points and will end at 3 p.m. "Aside from this, we're also planning to stage massive protests on a weekly basis," Villegas said in a radio interview. Based on the group's monitoring, fuel prices have been increasing in the last fi ve consecutive weeks, with diesel already breaching the P50-mark.

Since January, oil firms have implemented two price rollbacks and nine increases, it said. Premium and unleaded gasoline are retailed here between 61 to P62 per liter. In nearby Koronadal City the price of premium gasoline has reached P63.30 per liter, which is the highest so far for the area. According to the Department of Energy's (DOE) oil monitoring report, the year-to-date net increase for gasoline and diesel stands at P5.25 per liter and P3 per liter, respectively. This is on top of the recorded net increase for last year, which was P4.78 per liter for gasoline and P6.39 per liter for diesel. The DOE said the prices of Liquefi ed Petroleum Gas (LPG) have so far increased from P835 to P919 per 11-kilogram cylinder.

Villegas earlier said they were not inclined to seek another increase in minimum fare, which presently stands at P7.50 for the first four kilometers, due to its negative impact on local consumers and prices of basic goods. Aside from the scrapping of the VAT on oil, he said they have been urging the local government and traffic enforcers in the area to intensify their crackdown against the operations of colorum or unregistered public utility vehicles and single motorcycles currently proliferating in the area.PNA