GMA warns of power shortage, opens San Lorenzo plant.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

 | January 29, 2003 | Copyright

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Mei Magsino

BATANGAS CITY-President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday inaugurated the 500-megawatt San Lorenzo combined cycle plant, the country's most advanced and efficient power-generating facility, at Barangay Sta. Rita, this city, marking the completion of the all power-generating facilities required for the Philippine gas-to-power project.

The President congratulated First Gas Power Corp., the developer of San Lorenzo Power plant, for its contribution to nation-building.

"A stable energy supply is an important factor of a strong republic. This project can produce more than 53 percent of the country's energy requirement," Ms Macapagal said. "Now we know how much it takes to invest in power. It's $1 million per megawatt."

The President also emphasized the role of the private sector in helping the country achieve self-sufficiency in energy.

"This is also to make one thing clear," Ms Macapagal said, "Meralco and the government are not fighting each other."

The President also said that the Philippines' electricity bill, which used to be the second highest bill in Asia, was now down to 6th place, the lowest in 15 years.

Still, the Chief Executive warned of a forthcoming energy shortage in the country, citing the study made by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

"If we don't act now, we will have power shortages in the Visayas next year, in Mindanao in 2005, and in Luzon, in 2006," Ms Macapagal warned. "We need to act now so that we should not be caught flat-footed with brownouts."

The President said that on Feb. 1, she would start the power reform for the Visayas.

Storm spreads stench from oil refinery.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

 | May 29, 2003 | Copyright

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Mei Magsino

BATANGAS CITY-It was not only the rains or the monsoon winds that residents living near Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.'s (PSPC) refinery in Barangay Tabangao here had to endure the past three days but also the foul stench from the facility's emissions.

In a complaint, the barangay chairs of Malitam, Libjo, Sta. Clara, Calicanto, Tabangao, Sta. Rita, Wawa, Bolbok, Cuta and San Isidro appealed to Mayor Eduardo Dimacuha and the city council to conduct an immediate investigation.

They alleged that the refinery had been violating Presidential Decree No. 984 or the Anti-Pollution Law.

Roberto Kanapi, PSPC general manager for external affairs, said the stench could have been come from the crude oil tanks in the refinery, but added that it was inherent in all petroleum and even non-petroleum companies.

"What happened here was that nature seems to have conspired against us. The monsoon wind blew the odor up north to the residential area that came only in the '90s. Shell has been here since 1962. We're doing everything we can to make sure that this doesn't happen again," Kanapi said.

According to Bing Veneracion, Shell Tabangao's operations manager, the company had been conducting studies to determine where the odor came from.

Shell investigators at first suspected the LPG flare tower as the source. The tower burns excess hydrocarbons.

Veneracion said they also suspected ships that unloaded the crude oil, possible leakage from trucks that transferred the fuel, and even hydrocarbon leaks.

But he discounted all of these possible angles when the odor lasted longer than expected. The stench remained even after the ships and trucks had long gone.

Hydrocarbon leaks cannot last long as the automated alarms of the plant could detect and stop the leaks immediately after it was detected, Veneracion said.

On April 28, the residents of Tabangao, Malitam, Libjo, Wawa, San Isidro and Sta. Clara had already complained of the foul odor. From May 25 to 27, the odor spread throughout Barangay San Isidro, a residential area with a population of about 5,000, and even reportedly reached the neighboring barangays of Wawa, Sta. Clara and Libjo.

It was up in the northern side of the city that the stench was the foulest and longest.

Dr. Baby Clerigo, a dentist and resident of San Isidro, said several children in her neighborhood vomited after smelling the foul stench for three days.

Frequent asthma attacks have also been reported in households here and in nearby barangays.

Their complaint, according to Tabangao Barangay Chair Joel Caaway, was further compelled after a grassfire hit the area near Shell Gas Eastern Inc., where the company's liquefied petroleum gas was processed on May 18.

Although the 45-minute fire burned only a grassy area 200 meters from the LPG tanks, it raised the fears among residents of the barangays near the compound.

"The fire could have caused the entire refinery to explode, and it might affect the entire city," Caaway said.

But Veneracion said the fire could have been caused by a spark from the flare tower that burns the excess hydrocarbons in the gas plant. "That is a very remote chance because the flare is as far as 200 meters from the grassy area."

Another possibility, he said, was that some people "who now squat in our buffer zone could have accidentally started that fire."

"That grassfire was even impossible to reach the propane and butane tanks because those were already too far and the ground was also designed and equipped with materials that could prevent fire," Veneracion stressed.

Soldiers hold exercises in Batangas power plant.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

 | November 11, 2002 | Copyright

(By Mei Magsino, Philippine Daily Inquirer Southern Luzon Bureau)

BATANGAS CITY- After persistent reports that communist and terrorist groups would sabotage power plants, and captured terrorists' documents revealed that the most probable target is the Korean Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) in Barangay Ilijan, soldiers and police forces went on an exercise to protect the plant.

Agents posing as fully armed terrorists performed the first attack on the Special Forces' detachment near the power plant and kidnapped a Korean manager to enter the power plant.

Within minutes, the combined forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Luzon Unified Command, the Philippine National Police Regional Office IV-A, and Kepco-Ilijan Corporation's security came to the rescue, eliminated the enemy and even rescued the Korean hostage unharmed.

Unbelievingly fast?

That was just an exercise that the AFP and the PNP staged on Friday at the Kepco grounds to enhance the security of the newest natural-gas power plant in this city that is scheduled for inauguration by President Macapagal-Arroyo on Nov. 14.

The exercise was for the security of the power plant and is part of government efforts to protect all vital installations in the region.

Kepco-Ilijan is a project of the Korean Electric Power Corp. of South Korea, and is expected to save the Philippines an estimated equivalent of 1.6 million barrels of oil and its value in foreign exchange annually.

The power plant has the capacity of 1,200 megawatts generated through a combined cycle process fueled by natural gas from the Malampaya gas field in northern Palawan and piped to the Shell Refinery in Tabangao, Batangas.

Natural gas is recognized as the cheapest among fossil fuels.

Electricity generated by the power plant is seen to boost the power requirements of the Luzon Grid.

The power plant started its operation last June.

Present during the exercise were AFP Solcom chief Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, 2nd Infantry Division commanding general Maj. Gen. Efren Abu, PNP Region IV Director Chief Supt. Enrique Galang Jr., exercise director Brig. Gen. Dante Bonifacio, Kepco-Ilijan Vice President Won-Kyung Sung, Batangasprovincial police director Sr. Supt. Rodolfo Magtibay, Batangas City police chief Supt. Restito Hernandez, media persons and Kepco officials. Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

Residents protest power plant inauguration.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

 | January 29, 2003 | Copyright

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Mei Magsino

BATANGAS CITY-Simultaneous with President Macapagal-Arroyo's inauguration of the San Lorenzo power plant in Barangay Sta. Rita in this city, about 50 residents of Mendoza Road, also in the barangay, staged a rally against the power plant.

They alleged that the facility has brought them diseases and death. (See related story pn Page A2.)

Gaudencio Dimaandal, president of the Samahang Pinahahalagahan ang Buhay at Ari-arian (SPBA), said that since the First Gas power plant put up its high-power transmission lines along Mendoza Road, incidence of lung cancer and heart attacks rose in the neighborhood.

The SPBA claimed it has recorded three deaths from lung cancer and another three deaths from heart attack among the residents.

First Gas rented a 12-square-meter three property on which its high-power transmission power was built, Dimaandal said. "That is not enough to protect us from the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation. And we have reason to believe that EMF caused the deaths of our neighbors," he said.

But Siemens AG's Dr. Christian Urbanke said Siemens was not responsible for the acquisition of the land where the transmission lines were erected.

"We are only the technical adviser on how the transmission lines should be built and how to manage it," Urbanke said.

He said that in Germany and many other European countries where Siemens built power plants, most of the high-power transmission lines are also located in highly residential areas.

"If there were really some concerns about the electromagnetic field, then our government shouldn't have allowed transmission lines to pass over the residential areas," Urbanke said.

"We all know how particularly strict Germany is when it comes to health concerns. Actually the residents' protest is not new. We've been dealing with that, years before. The issue centers more on land acquisition than health risk."

Dimaandal said the high-power transmission lines should have [placed within] a 50-by-50-meter zone from the nearest residential area and should never have been put up in a residential area like Mendoza Road.

"We want First Gas to buy our land and our houses located near the transmission lines," Dimaandal said. "Only then can we be given assurance that our health and lives will not be at risk from EMF radiation that could cause cancer."

SPBA records show that Dimaandal's father Calixto, 76, died of lung cancer on April 26, 1999. Other lung cancer fatalities were Francisco Banaag, 60, who died two years ago, and Gilberto Ilagan, 54, who died on July 22 last year.

Gaudencio Ilagan, 86, another resident, died last Saturday from heart attack, while Felipe Caraos, 65, and his wife Maria, 60, died on June 8, 2001.

The First Gas power plant in Sta. Rita Kalsada started commercial production in July 2000.

Mountain monkeys vanishing.

Philippine Daily Inquirer
 | May 09, 2002 | Copyright
Byline: Mei Magsino
THERE used to be thousands of monkeys roaming the mountains of Barangay Malibayo in Batangas City. Now there are less than 500 of them.
They are being hunted and killed by farmers who look at them as pests. Some monkeys end up on the dining table.
A witness to the monkeys' disappearance, Tune Cabatay, Barangay Chair of Malibayo, narrates the monkeys' ordeal in the hands of humans.
"We are now campaigning to save those monkeys and convert the Malibayo mountains to a monkey conservation park," said Philip Baroja, city environment and natural resources officer.
Baroja and his staff, the city's boy scouts and volunteers recently made a trek to Barangay Tingga Labak. They hiked through the Malibayo mountains in search of the monkeys.
But the group, which camped in the Piit River, where monkeys were supposed to drink in the morning and at noon, was not able to see even a shadow of the monkeys.
After the two-day trek in the mountains, the exhausted team found two monkeys, but neither in the mountains nor in the forests of Malibayo.
The monkeys were chained next to a barbecue stand downtown, sitting next to pork cubes roasting on hot coal.
From pets to pests
There used to be about 20,000 monkeys in the Malibayo mountains and forests. They would even cross the roads and be seen by residents up close.
In the 1960s, according to residents of Malibayo, the monkeys were not as wild as they are now. Some would even visit their homes.
There, monkeys grew as tall as three feet at a mature age. Monkeys as big as three feet are called mananer.
Some residents here also used to have monkeys as pets.
It was only when the farmers started killing them and the guard dogs began hounding the monkeys that they became wild and started getting scarcer.
Cabatay, 42, has a ready answer for the vanishing monkeys of Malibayo.
As a farmer whose crops have always been attacked by the monkeys, he said he has no choice but to kill those "pests."
"I have a cornfield that was ready for harvest last season," Cabatay said, "And the day before I was about to reap the fruit of my hard work, all I found were devoured corncobs, and ravished corn plants. Some corncobs lying on the ground had just a bite on the side and thrown away. Here, we consider the monkeys as pests. And like all pests, they have to be exterminated."
Another farmer, Amado Pagkaliwagan, 46, said his sugar apple plantation also suffered the same fate.
"Those monkeys are even disgusting," Pagkaliwagan said, "They would even pick out the ripe sugar apples even if they are already full, take a bite and throw the fruits like garbage."
Lorenzo Camacho, 52, also a farmer, prides himself with having killed not less than 200 monkeys in his field and in the mountains.
He even guides monkey hunters in the forest to track down the monkeys.
Camacho said captured monkeys could also be skinned, chopped and cooked into adobo and served as pulutan for the farmers.
"Sometimes in the fields and in the mountains, we even set traps to ensnare the monkeys," he said. "In the cornfields, when my scarecrow did not work, I killed a monkey and set the body up on the scarecrow's place. The monkeys never returned to my field."
Cabatay said the monkeys, which have now turned into pests, have nothing to eat in the mountains since the dry season started and the trees have not borne any fruit.
Next to Tingga Falls
With the success of the Save Tingga Falls Movement, the group that started the cleanup drive is now planning to save the monkeys of Malibayo.
"We are soliciting the help of the barangay folk to save the Malibayo monkeys, but it seems that we can't really blame them if they have been killing the monkeys," Baroja said. "For any farmer, a pest like that is bad for business, and should be killed. But we can't let them kill the monkeys forever. We have to do something to divert the monkeys' attention to a new food source."
According to residents who have seen the five monkey trails in the mountains, there are now an estimated 100 in the Kalansing trail, 50 in Sia, another 50 in Borbor, Kinikiputan, and Piit trails.
Monkey trails in the mountains show a white limestone path from the peak down to the nearest river where they drink at five to six in the morning and in the afternoon.
"Developing these mountains into a monkey conservation park would again entail a lot of money," Baroja said, "But Batanguenos today can turn it into a legacy for the next generation if we start preserving it now," he added.
The city environment officer said the city has been having frequent foreign visitors who want to see a piece of natural resources the city could offer. But since the city has no nature parks, nor resorts, the foreign guests are taken to a trip to Palawan or to Boracay.
The movement to save Tingga Falls and the monkey conservation park would be a future tourist destination, Baroja said.
The Malibayo mountains still teem with wild chicken known as labuyo, eagles, and crows.

Island folk hit exclusion from PPA reduction.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | August 04, 2002 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MAMBURAO, Occidental Mindoro-The people of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro are disgusted with the government after the island provinces were excluded from the reduction of the purchased power adjustment (PPA) as promised by the President during her State of the Nation Address.
According to Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal ng Mamburao spokesperson Rodolfo Plopinio, the disgusted people of Mamburao found the exemption discriminating and unfair.
Plopinio asserted that their exclusion from the PPA reduction was an insult that added to the town, whose Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (Omeco) has been supplying them more with brownouts than electricity during the last 14 years.
He said that in her Sona, the President even mentioned with pride how the PPA was reduced through her intervention. She did not mention any exemption from the PPA reduction.
Complying with President Macapagal-Arroyo's directive, as early as May 21, the National Power Corp. furnished the Energy Regulatory Commission a copy of Resolution No. 2002-60 pegging the power purchase cost adjustment (PPCA) at a uniform rate of P0.40 per kilowatt-hour.
The resolution states that the reduction was supposed to be effective in all grids at a uniform rate of P0.40/kWh. It also states that the reduction will depend on the mix of electricity sourced from the Napocor and from the independent power producers of distribution utilities in a particular grid.
It further states that the reduction of the PPCA is distinct and separate from the P0.30/kWh mandated rate reduction for end-users.
On May 31, however, the Napocor amended the earlier resolution exempting all grids, except Bohol and the small island grids from the reduction. The amended resolution, Resolution No. 2002-61, was approved by the ERC on June 3.
Although the resolution states that only those island provinces without independent power producers are not included in the PPA reduction, the two provinces of Mindoro have two IPPs. Mirant Power Plant is located in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro, while the Island Power Corp. is in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

Taal's best-and oldest-embroiderer.

Philippine Daily Inquirer
 April 18, 2002 | Copyright
Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
TAAL, Batangas-For Taal's best embroiderer, the secret to her unique, lasting and sought-after embroidery lies not in the thread, nor in the needle or the cloth.
"To make the perfect embroidery, you have to fall in love with the craft," Lola Fabianita Padua said, putting the finishing touches to the embroidered tablecloth she has been making for almost a week.
Seventy-eight-year-old Padua, also known as Lola Fabing, started her love affair with embroidery when she was only 12 years old.
Embroidery was her only love, and yet for 66 years, she said, she has never grown tired of it, perfecting the craft that has been handed down to her by her mother, grandmother and great grandmother whose art has also been recognized as the town's best designs.
She amazes tourists who visit the town for her 20-20 vision. She wears eyeglasses only in the afternoon when her eyes get tired of embroidering.
"I guess it is destiny that I will grow old with my one and only love everyday," Padua said, referring to her embroidery.
When she started embroidering at the age of 12, she felt better off than her teachers who used to earn only P100 a month.
"That time, I earned P150 a week. So I didn't continue my schooling. I didn't go to high school because I was earning more than enough," she said.
Now, she earns at least P1,800 per project.
She is now teaching her nieces the technique of perfecting the craft.
Padua also shows off her skill to students on field trip to Taal and tourists who visit the national heritage town.
Her regular clients include Patis Tesoro, Rene Salud and the members of the town and province's high society.
Padua still wears her kimona every time a guest comes to watch her work.
The town's tourism office has also arranged every travel group in town to include visiting the famed Lola Fabing's embroidery in its schedule.
And like a child proud of her work, she beams in every demonstration.
First, she draws her designs, mostly of flowers, on a wax paper, then she cuts out the designs, leaving only the lines of the drawings.
She then spreads the wax paper on a piece of cloth.
Afterward, she spreads the blue dye over the cutout wax paper. The blue design will be left on the cloth.
From that design, Padua traces with needle and thread.
The result will be one of Taal's unique embroidery.
Padua has her way of determining if the embroidery has been done by machine.
"If you cut a thread of embroidery and all of it goes with just one pull, it's machine-embroidered. With handmade embroidery, no matter how much you pull the thread, the design remains intact," she said.
Now on her twilight years, and with no children of her own to train, Padua is racing with time to teach her nieces and cousins' grandchildren the slowly vanishing art of embroidery known only from Taal.
"What's really disheartening is when I see the girls prefer texting and watching TV over preserving our family and this town's legacy of beautiful embroideries. But I can't blame them. I don't think I could make them fall in love with embroidery like I did," she said.
Taal's tourism officer Chato Bonsol, who also guides tourists to Padua's house, said embroidering is now included in the town's school curriculum to preserve one of Taal's greatest treasures.
"One of the Filipina patriots was Marcela Agoncillo. She was the one who embroidered the Philippine flag," Padua said.
"Embroidery is a part of our history. I just hope it lives longer than history."