“Our indirect ownership of SMI is very small.  But there are no plans to sell it or expand the ownership at the moment kasi impression namin nakabinbin pa ang project (our impression is the project is still hanging in the balance),” Pangilinan said.

“We do not know what Glencore’s plans are and we don’t know what the stakes are involved,” Pangilinan also added in a press conference following his speech at the annual stockholders meeting of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Friday.

Pangilinan is referring to the Xstrata Plc takeover by global commodities giant Glencore International last month which created the fourth largest diversified mining company in the world.

The Glencore acquisition of Xstrata Plc created a US$75 billion merged company.

The possible sale of SMI as a result of the takeover was averted after Glencore agreed to sell its stakes at the Las Bambas copper project in Peru.  It was one of the conditions laid down by China as the latter feared the growing influence of the merged companies in the world of copper production and trading.

Glencore and Xstrata are publicly listed and investors are eagerly watching developments in the merger-takeover.

Xstrata holds 67.5 percent of the Tampakan Copper and Gold Project in South Cotabato which is being held by SMI.  The rest is owned by the Australian-controlled Indophil Resources Philippines.

The Alsons-led Filipino conglomerate, of which the Pangilinan-led Philex Mines is one of the partners, owns 19.99 percent of Indophil.

Also part of the Alsons syndicated group are San Miguel Corporation and SM Holdings.

Pangilinan said his group is now preoccupied with its ongoing mining operations in Baguio and in Surigao del Norte where they have already poured in more than US$24.3 million (Php1 billion) for the latter’s exploration activities.

The business mogul also said it would be a waste if SMI cannot operate because of problems in obtaining permits from the local government of South Cotabato.

“Sayang (It’s a waste).  It is a world class project,” said Pangilinan who is popularly known in the business community in the Philippines though his initials (MVP).

Although SMI was already issued environmental compliance certificate (ECC) it still needs to obtain approval from the provincial government.

But governor-elect Daisy Avance-Fuentes has repeatedly indicated that the provincial environment code will stay.

In 2010, the South Cotabato provincial board passed an ordinance banning open pit mining in the province.

Fuentes signed the ordinance just weeks before she stepped down to take her oath as member of the House of Representatives.

Fuentes reclaimed her post as governor in a tightly contested race against defeated Gov. Arthur Pingoy and former Koronadal mayor Fernando Miguel.

SMI has already declared it will employ open pit mining methods to extract copper and gold ore deposits in its mining site in the remote mountain village of Tablu in Tampakan, South Cotabato.

The Tampakan project is touted as having the world’s largest untapped copper and gold deposits with a potential annual average production of 375,000 tons of copper in concentrate for at least 17 years. 

The latest murder victim was a vegetable vendor who was shot by an unidentified gunman while tending to his stall at the Reyes satellite public market at 1am Monday. 

Pic: Francis Canlas.

The gunman immediately fled on a motorcycle, accompanied by a getaway driver.

A witness said the gunman’s companion was a woman, who also acted as a lookout.  The same witness told ABS-CBN TV Patrol Socskargen that the gunman was wearing a bullcap and covered his face with a handkerchief.

Few hours later, a customer at a local sing-along bar was seriously wounded after he was shot by an unknown suspect.  A woman driver of the getaway motorcycle was said to have acted as a customer before the gunman shot Alexander Unsang in the face.  The victim was rushed to the hospital.

On Saturday, a tricycle driver was also shot by a gunman.  Investigators, however, believed the killing was motivated by power play within a tricycle drivers’ group.

Last week, three people were killed within hours of each other in a single bloody day which recalled the situation in nearby Davao City before the Commission on Human Rights stepped in and scorched local government officials for their failure to stop a spate of killings two years ago.

General Santos City Police Office director Senior Supt. Froilan Quidilla said they have already identified the suspect in at least one of the killings but expressed dismay over the refusal of witnesses to come forward and identify suspects in other killings.

Quidilla also said most of the killings were drug-related, according to their initial investigations. He added that he warned city police station commanders that they will be relieved from their posts if the killings continue in their respective areas of responsibility.

The city police director is a veteran commander of international peace keeping forces that have seen action in Bosnia and East Timor.

More than 200 people have already been killed in General Santos City (Gensan) since 2002 when a turf war among drug dealers sparked violence in the city.

It coincided with the assignment of the late Supt. Efren Alcuizar who headed the then police-attached Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Alcuizar was, however, a controversial figure in the anti-drug campaign and was implicated in the kidnapping of a daughter of a Davao City car dealer.

Alcuizar was killed under mysterious circumstances several years ago.

The recent spate of killings has elicited strong reactions from the business community. Former General Santos City Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Manuel Yaphockun said the unsolved killings are giving the city a bad image, with it now seen as the capital of unsolved killings in Mindanao.

He urged the police to immediately solve the killings to allay fears of residents.

Even the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan joined the fray and held a rally Sunday afternoon to denounce what they call as failure of the local police to stop the unabated killings.

Hong Kong fans were reported to have referred to the Philippines as a ‘slave nation’ during a match which hosted a sizeable Filipino audience.  They also were also seen unfurling a banner that read: “Lest we forget, 23/8/10 Manila”, referring to the bus hostage incident in Luneta where eight Hong Kong tourist were killed in a botched rescue attempt.

The Azkals celebrate their 1-0 win over Turkmenistan in the AFC Challenge Cup in March. Pic: AP.

Some 169,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are working in Hong Kong, most of them domestic helpers.

Football is one of the global spectator sports where racial and economic divides have been put aside and where poorer countries have made great strides in making the game a truly global athletic competition. 

Over the last five years the Philippines has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts in football popularity and competitiveness, which is good news for a country that has long been basketball-obsessed.

The Philippines was once Asian football’s favorite whipping boy, so to speak.  Not anymore.  This is thanks in part to the Filipino-European members of the Philippine national team who have made the ‘Azkals’ much more competitive in Asia and a handful for opposing teams.

The narrow victory against Hong Kong Tuesday only underscored the Philippines’ improved standing in the FIFA rankings.  The Philippines (ranked 143) has now jumped above Hong Kong (147^th).    Among Southeast Asian countries, only Vietnam (133^rd) and Thailand (142nd) rank ahead than the Philippines.

Philippines’ football still lags behind compared to the rest of Asia but five years ago nobody would have taken the Philippines seriously in this part of the world.

Admittedly not all the players were born and raised in the Philippines, but what country, at one time or another, has not made use of eligible foreign players their national football team?

The Hong Kong fans’ racial outbursts have no connection whatsoever to the sport.  It is racism in its ugly form and it has no place in sport, especially in a sport that has done so much to transcend racial divides.

Hong Kong once resented its pariah image and its long history of British colonization should remind its residents that economic prosperity is no license to discriminate against their lesser neighbors.

The Luneta incident, which Philippine authorities already admitted as a serious operational mistake and a diplomatic gaffe, should also not be reason enough to deride people by reason of race or economic status.

The Hong Kong football authorities should immediately apologize to the Philippine team and the country for such arrogant display of racism.  You do not invite a neighbor to a dinner in your house and castigate him or her for failing to place the bread plate in the proper place.

Emotions may run high at sports events and competitive football games can certainly get physical.  But racial abuse?  There are no winners when racism enters the sports arena.

No, he was not a candidate, although had his son Jack won they would have formed the first ever father and son tandem in the Philippine Senate. But it wasn’t to be.

Enrile had three more years left in his second consecutive 6-year senate stint and, at 89 years old, this could mark the end of his long but controversial political career.

Juan Ponce Enrile seen during the impeachment trial of Renato Corona last year. Pic: AP.

On Wednesday, he tendered his irrevocable resignation as Senate president citing differences with fellow senators who questioned his handling of Senate funds.  In his privilege speech on Wednesday’s last Senate session before it adjourned sine die, Enrile bitterly complained that the incessant attacks against him cost his son Jack dearly in his election bid. 

Fellow senators had earlier complained about the huge Christmas bonuses Enrile gave to favored colleagues.  But the Senate fund issue also opened up an old subject of the elderly senator’s reported indiscretion as his longtime chief of staff Gigi Reyes resigned amid rumors of their extra-marital relations. Jack’s election loss was collateral damage, according to his father.

But it is not just about the issue of the handling of Senate funds. Enrile would certainly lose the Senate presidency anyway given the dismal showing of the opposition in the recently concluded senatorial elections.

Only three senators from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) won in the senate elections. Enrile, along with vice President Jejomar Binay and former President Joseph Estrada, is the third of the opposition triumvirate that challenged the Aquino administration, which won nine of the 12 senate seats up for grabs.  Interestingly, two of the UNA winners are children of Binay (Nancy Binay) and Estrada (JV Ejercito).  The other winning UNA candidate was re-electionist Senator Gregorio Honasan. Suffice to say, he simply does not have the numbers to retain his Senate post.

Enrile, a political survivor, successfully fended off attempts to replace him as President of the 15^th Session of the Philippine Senate after cashing in on the political windfall he generated from his role as presiding officer of Senate impeachment court that convicted disgraced Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

A few weeks thereafter, he launched a book of his memoirs as martial law administrator and the role he played in the ouster of his former benefactor, the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  Many criticized Enrile for recanting his earlier statement that he staged his own ambush in 1972 to justify the declaration of martial law.  Victims of the martial law regime also demanded that Enrile be made to account for his role in the death, disappearance and torture of thousands of anti-Marcos forces. Many also panned him for his revisionist account of the Philippine revolt that culminated in the EDSA Uprising of 1986.

Undaunted, he threatened to publish a follow-up to his memoir.

Rumors about his failing health have been rife since was never seen campaigning during his son’s out-of-town sorties in the run-up to last month’s elections. It seems Enrile’s political career is coming to an end whether he likes it or not as father time is finally catching up with him.

Unfortunately, he has again missed an opportunity for redemption as a statesman willing to show remorse for his deeds and misdeeds of the past.  His defiant ‘irrevocable’ resignation evoked memories of his old petulant self when the issue of the Senate fund first surfaced.

In January this year, live on television before millions of Filipinos, Enrile exposed himself as a collector of past political favors and financial debts.  The statesman figure he likes to project is a mean and cantankerous autocrat who can get so low he will disrespect the memory of the dead (after reminding Senator Peter Allan Cayetano that the latter’s father worked for him).

His privilege speech Wednesday was in keeping with his reputation as an unrepentant despot who survived several political upheavals, less because of his cunning than the reluctance of past presidents to go after those who engineered the killing, torture and disappearance of freedom-loving Filipinos – communists or otherwise.

His resignation can only be viewed as defiant camouflage in the face of another defeat.

Unfortunately, he has never come to grips with the fact that the his only chance for absolution is his non-qualifying and genuine repentance.

Father time may catch up with him before he realizes it.  But not many will miss him.

More than 100 passengers of Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 971 escaped unharmed after the plane overshot the runway causing the cancellation of tens of flights, with the travel chaos spilling over into Monday.

A Cebu Pacific Airbus A320 passenger plane sits on the side of a runway Monday, June 3, 2013 after it overshot the runway upon landing at Davao International Airport in southern Philippines on Saturday evening. Pic: AP.

The plane is still stranded, making Davao City’s runway inaccessible to incoming and outgoing flights.

Hundreds of passengers flying in and out of Davao City were rerouted to General Santos City, some 170 kilometers away.

The incident has also put Cebu Pacific, the country’s biggest budget airline, under heavy fire.

A leading university in Davao City is no longer purchasing tickets for Cebu Pacific flights, citing the airline’s “ineptness and insensitivity” in handling the crisis situation.

In a letter circulated on Facebook, Fr Joel Tabora, president of Ateneo de Davao University, said the flight and ground personnel of the airline failed “to give humane assistance to passengers”.

The incident occurred while Davao City was being battered by heavy rains. Witnesses said the airport’s landing lights were barely visible in the downpour.

Additionally, the plane’s cockpit and cabin crew reportedly did not open the plane’s doors for 27 minutes after the botched landing and there were no rescue trucks when it did open.

Fr Tabora’s letter continues:

“After the irregular landing of flight 5J971 the plane caught visible fire before it came to a stop off runway… It was only after 27 minutes in a smoked cabin that the passengers were allowed leave the plane by coming down emergency slides… What if the engine had exploded?”

The mishap brought to fore the preparedness of domestic airports personnel and the ability of airlines to respond to emergency situations.

The Cebu-Pacific accident left thousands of passengers stranded. Image via @JayDayupay on Twitter.

The Davao incident also exposed issues in other airports, such as General Santos (Gensan). As flights were redirected, it emerged that Gensan airport’s  X-ray machines have been out of order for quite some time.  The long queues of passengers lining up to have their baggage manually inspected caused chaos at the normally laid back airport that only handles eight flights on busy days.

Cebu Pacific alone added 16  more round trip flights to General Santos City and the Philippine Airlines (PAL) upgraded its 4pm flight to a wide-bodied aircraft to accommodate more passengers.

Not even the US-designed airport built to military specifications can anticipate such sudden flow of passenger traffic, and General Santos City airport is supposed to be Mindanao’s second biggest airport.

Air transportation has become the primary means of traveling to and from Mindanao, with sea travel now virtually non-existent.

But with airline crew and airport personnel struggling to handle emergency situations effectively, a disaster is waiting to happen.

Nobody wants to be in a worse situation than those passengers in Flight 5J 971. The country’s aviation authorities must act fast before lives are lost.

More than 100 passengers of Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 971 escaped unharmed when the plane overshot the runaway causing the cancellation of tens of flights that spilled Monday.

The plane is still stranded making Davao City’s runaway inaccessible to incoming and outgoing flights.

Hundreds of passengers flying in and out of Davao City were rerouted to General Santos City, some 170 kilometers away.

It also put Cebu Pacific, the country’s biggest budget airline, under heavy fire.

A leading Catholic school in Davao City announced it is no longer purchasing tickets for Cebu Pacific flights citing the airline’s “ineptness and insensitivity” in handling the crisis situation.

Fr Joel Tabora, president of Ateneo de Davao University, said the flight and ground personnel of the airline failed “to give humane assistance to passengers.”

The incident occurred while Davao City was battered by heavy rains.

Witnesses said the airport’s landing lights were barely visible due to the heavy rains.

Still, the plane’s cockpit and cabin crew reportedly did not open the plane until after 27 long minutes and there were no rescue trucks when it did open.

The mishap brought to fore the preparedness of domestic airports personnel and the ability of airlines to respond to emergency situation.

What if the plane caught fire and exploded in the runway?  Who would have been responsible for the disaster?

Morbid as it may be, it always pay that people given to task are up to the job.

Even the envied Call 911 disaster response center of Davao City was not able to deal with the situation.

And considering that Davao City is the third busiest in the country with over 30 flights a day, the repercussion of a disaster – heavens forbid – is unimaginable.

The Davao incident also made General Santos (Gensan) a collateral damage.

As flights were redirected and added to Gensan, it was also exposed that its airport’s X-ray machines were not working for a long time now.  The long queue of passengers lining up to have their baggage manually inspected made a bedlam at the otherwise laid back airport that only has 8 flights on busy days.  And that comes only thrice a week.  On lean days, it is only 6 flights.

On the day all flights to and from Davao were cancelled, Cebu Pacific alone added 16  more round trip flights to General Santos City and the Philippine Airlines (PAL) upgraded its 4pm flight into a wide-bodied aircraft to accommodate more passengers.

Imagine the pre-departure area that can seat no more than 250 passengers being deluged by the onrush of a thousand more from Davao City and nearby areas rushing to fly out from the accident-stricken airport in Panacan.

Imagine also the chaos at the arrival and baggage claim area.

Tensions flared up and angry passengers, both the rerouted and taking their scheduled flights were cussing and cursing the organized chaos at the General Santos City airport.

Not even the US-designed airport built to military specifications can anticipate such sudden flow of passenger traffic and General Santos City airport is supposed to be Mindanao’s second biggest airport.  

Air transportation has become the primary means of going in and going out of Mindanao with sea travel now virtually non-existent aside from no longer economically viable to both the passengers and shipping line owners.  Given the country’s long history of tragedies in the seas, air travel has become more of convenience rather than a luxury that it was before.

But with airline crew and airport personnel proving to be lacking in handling emergency situation and worst case scenarios, a recipe for disaster is waiting to happen.

Nobody wants to be in a worse situation than those passengers in Flight 5J 971.

Needless to say, the country’s aviation authorities must act fast before lives are lost.

“While I expected this move from them, it is still alarming to realize that these accused have been trying to escape from the rule of law as they pleaded the same thing to the 57 victims of the Ampatuan-Maguindanao massacre,” Reynafe said in her Facebook wall.

Reynafe is the daughter of photojournalist Reynaldo ‘Bebot’ Momay whose body was never found but was believed to also have been killed in the infamous Maguindanao massacre.

“I wish I was there to look at their faces and eyes as they filed their plea,” Momay-Castillo further rued.

Castillo left for the US last year without seeing the suspects arraigned for the death of her father.

On Monday, principal suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr, pleaded not guilty in the November 2009 massacre of 58 people, 32 of them journalists and media workers. 

Also arraigned was former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan and 76 others.

The arraignment of Andal Ampatuan Sr and 5 other members of the Ampatuan clan were deferred pending unresolved motions.

Momay, who works as a photographer of the weekly Midland Review, was listed as among the journalists and media workers who joined the convoy to cover the filing of certificate of candidacy of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu who ran for governor of Maguindanao in 2010.

Momay and the rest of the massacre victims were however flagged down by the suspects in Ampatuan town, five kilometers away from the capital town of Sharif Aguak.  The victims, which included the wife, 2 sisters and several relatives of Mangudadatu, were led to a remote village where they were mowed down.

Recovered from the scene was a set of dentures that reportedly belonged to Momay.

Andal Jr would have been the rival of Mangudadatu.  Mangudadatu eventually won and was recently re-elected.

“It took our family 32 months of waiting before the court has officially recognized my father as the 58th victim of the gruesome killing and 42 months before the arraignment of suspects took place,” her daughter said.

Momay-Castillo left last year very frustrated but is also relieved her father is now recognized as the 58^th victim.

“I am thankful to my lawyers for their untiring assistance to my case,” she said.

Caught red-handed and obviously poaching inside Philippine waters, Taiwan is obscuring the issue that led to the unfortunate death of its fisherman.

The location of the shooting incident. It boils down to access to fishing grounds.

Yes, the death of 65-year-old Hung Shih-chen was regrettable. Whose fault it was, however, is an issue that will need more judicious investigation.

Taiwan has reportedly rejected an offhand personal apology from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. We say the personal apology should not mean guilt but rather regret for the life lost.  Any violent death is tragic and Taiwan’s anger is understandable.

But the Taiwanese government should not take advantage of the incident to advance its interests. A formal Philippine apology is a ruse that will grant Taiwan tacit diplomatic recognition. It will violate the Philippines’ one-China policy.  Taiwan is obviously using the death of Hung as a trump card in its efforts to gain ground in international diplomacy.

And now Taiwan is surely quietly pleased with the Philippines’ offer to hold bilateral talks for access to common fishing.  This will probably mean more access for Taiwanese fishermen in Philippine fishing grounds because – let’s face it – Taiwan needs our marine resources more than we need theirs.

Taiwan has far more advance fishing industry and fishing fleet.  Our commercial fishing grounds are nowhere near there, too. Granting them access to the Batanes Strait where the shooting incident took place will give them s gateway to largely untapped fishing grounds in the eastern side of the Philippine archipelago. Not that these Taiwanese fishermen are not already there.  They have been caught more than 100 times fishing illegally.  A bilateral fisheries treaty would legitamize them as they tap our resources.

More importantly, the waters where they want to have access are traditional fishing grounds of our small fishermen.  These are areas rich in reef fishes and other exotic marine life that command princely sums in posh Taiwanese restaurants. 

How many times have we caught Chinese and Taiwanese fishermen hauling off hundreds of marine turtles?  How many have we caught with live, endangered Napoleon wrasses?  All in our territorial waters.

Taiwan is a competitor.  But they are a ‘vicious’ kind of competition when it comes to fishing.   They are our competition in the global tuna industry.  They use long lines that indiscriminately hook even turtles and shark searching for yellow fin tuna while we continue to employ the sustainable handline fishing method.  They cast their purse seine searching but in the process also haul off dolphins and sharks and discard by-catches in search for big-eye and yellowfin tuna.  Our canned tuna industry thrives on skipjacks and other tuna-like specie and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, where Taiwan is also a member, has cited our sustainable fishing methods.

While we seek bilateral fishing agreements with the rest of the tuna-rich countries in the Pacific region, we also should protect our marine resources, especially our fragile coral reefs.

Taiwan deserves our commiseration for the death of Hung.  But again, that does not mean we are at fault. We should not be selling our soul just because we are sending thousands of workers to Taiwan.

Taiwan needs to understand that.

The Philippine used to be Asia’s second largest economy, next only to Japan, before World War II broke out.  Now, it is one of Southeast Asia’s laggards.   

(READ MORE: Taiwan botches an international incident)

For decades, foreign poachers raided and ravaged marine life and resources inside its territorial waters.  Large trawlers owned by Japanese and Taiwanese fishing companies exploited Philippine waters for its bounty of marine life. Unable to protect its territorial waters, the Philippines can only raise its voice before the international community and pass diplomatic note verbal to offending countries whose fishermen are caught operating illegally in its territorial waters.

That is until recently.

On May 9, the Philippine Coast Guard fired at a Taiwanese fishing vessel which it claimed intruded into its waters and after it reportedly tried to ram a patrol boat owned by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar). A 65-year-old Taiwanese fisherman died in the incident.

(READ MORE: Fishermen pay price in Asia’s volatile sea rifts)

The death of the Taiwanese fisherman triggered the ongoing row with the government of Taiwan with which the Philippines officially has no diplomatic ties but maintains an economic and trade mission office.

Taiwan immediately demanded an explanation from the Philippine government and issued a 72-hour ultimatum to issue an apology –  probably thinking of a state-issued apology that is something the Philippine government cannot do in the absence of formal diplomatic relations. It said it will impose sanctions against the Philippines. It threatened to suspend the hiring of Filipino workers and also issued travel alerts urging its citizens to avoid traveling to the Philippines. It also recalled its economic representative to the country and said it will suspend exchanges between high-level officials, trade and academic affairs.

The Taiwanese government appeared to have pulled the trigger much too soon.

The scene of shooting incident which led to the death of a 64-year-old Taiwanese fisherman appears to be closer to the main Philippine island of Luzon than Taiwan.

The coordinates of the shooting incident it released appeared to be more proximate to the main Luzon island of the Philippines than Taiwan, although their exclusive economic zones could overlap because of island-territories that litter the waters between the two countries.

The Taiwanese government was also mum about the Philippine claim that the fishing vessel, one of the five Taiwanese vessels that were fishing in the area, tried to ram the Philippine patrol boat.

The Taiwanese reaction may have been precipitated by domestic trouble its government is facing.  Further, it appears to be tolerating, if not abetting, domestic abuse and violence against Filipino residents in Taiwan.

The New York Times quoted South China Morning Post commentator Philip Bowring:

Now it’s Taiwan’s turn to show some nationalist anger, and its target is the Philippines. Taipei’s reaction seems more than just local political pressures on a weak President Ma Ying-jeou but linked to the desire to show that the island’s Kuomintang government is at least as eager to pursue Chinese maritime claims as Beijing.

The Times further quotes him:

Ma Ying-jeou, who has low popularity ratings, was seeking to “ride the wave of nationalism that, almost spontaneously, had taken over the whole of Taiwan.”

The row, coming off a recent spat between the Philippines and China involving the Spratly Islands, has the Philippines once again under siege. 

The Philippines just recently rounded up a Chinese fishing vessel poaching in Philippine waters and it also raised howls from Beijing.

China and Taiwan are both economic giants with which the Philippines maintain trade ties.  The two are still technically at civil war with each other.  But China and Taiwan have consistently shown their propensity to use their economic clout to exert pressure and bully its neighbors. 

Chinese and Taiwanese fishing vessels have been reported to have fired at Vietnamese fishermen they chanced upon in disputed territorial waters. Both have naval forces that can subdue any of Southeast Asia’s best maritime forces, including the Philippines which has among the region’s most poorly equipped navies.

Until it becomes economically capable of resisting pressure from neighborhood bullies, the Philippines will have to endure diplomatic embarrassment and degradation. Nobody bullies the rich.  And we are the poor neighbors, unfortunately

On Tuesday, May 21, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III announced a US$1.2 billion “military upgrade to help defend country’s maritime territory against ‘bullies’ in the region.”

It won’t be enough, but it will serve notice.

We have already proven that flexing our economic muscles will make them respect us.  Like what we have achieved when we became one of the world’s biggest tuna producers.  We used to be the poor cousins among tuna producers in the region.  Not anymore.  We have grown into a multinational tuna fishing giant and our voices are listened to in the global tuna industry.

We can only expect China and Taiwan to respect our territorial integrity if we have the economic capacity to defend it. Until we can stand up to them, they will continue to bully us.

On May 13, Rogelio ‘Ruel’ Pacquiao lost in his bid to become seatmates with elder brother in the House of Representatives, losing to re-electionist Pedro ‘Jun’ Acharon Jr by an overall margin of 8,490 votes (Results quoted herein are from Rappler’s Mirror Service and are unofficial – author). 

General Santos City is part of the 1^st Congressional District of South Cotabato which also includes the towns of Tupi, Tampakan and Polomolok.

It is the same position that Manny Pacquiao coveted in 2007 but lost heavily to then re-electionist Darlene Antonino-Custodio.

Pacquiao would change residence soon after his humbling loss.  In 2010, he ran and won in nearby Sarangani where he was overwhelmingly embraced by its residents.  He ran unopposed as a re-electionist congressman on May 13.  His wife Jinkee also won by a landslide as vice governor in the province.

It would have been a triple crown for the Hall of Fame-bound boxing champion had Ruel also won in General Santos.

It is too early to dissect Ruel’s loss as all data are not yet in.  But, just the same, it undoubtedly was a painful and another costly loss for the Pacquiaos.

Ruel’s bid was viewed by many as his brother’s proxy war.

Former world boxing champion Gerry Peñalosa last year revealed that it was always an obsession of Pacquiao to, one day, become the  mayor of General Santos.

Pacquiao, the country’s boxing icon, changed political course however when fame and fortune egged him to become even larger than real life and in politics.  He rose into the national consciousness and his celebrity status became his ticket to political prominence. 

Call it tough luck for Manny but General Santos seems to play a political spoil sports for him.

Not even the endorsement of the influential Iglesia ni Kristo could propel Ruel to victory.

For how can one explain the victory of mayor-elect Ronnel Rivera who won over Manny’s nemesis Darlene by a margin of 14,006 (again unofficial)? 

WIN SOME LOSE SOME. General Santos has again rebuffed Rep. Manny Pacquiao (left) whose brother Rogelio (middle) lost in a bid to become congressman. On the right is General Santos Mayor-elect Ronnel Rivera. Pic: Edwin Espejo.

Seven councilors belonging to People’s Champ Movement (PCM), the local party founded by Manny, endorsed by Iglesia ni Kristo also won, including re-elected Vice Mayor Shirlyn Bañas.   PCM now controls majority of the 12 elective seats city council.  But rival political party Achievement with Integrity Movement (AIM) has the 2 ex-officio posts, for the association of barangay chair and the Sangguniang Kabataan in addition to its 5 re-elected councilors.

Ruel lost by a difference of more than 3,000 votes in General Santos.  That means a vote swing of at least 17,000 against the younger Pacquiao from the votes that Rivera got in winning as city mayor.

Was it a vote of rejection of the Pacquiaos in General Santos?  Or was it a failure of organization for Ruel on the part of PCM? 

While Pacquiao provided the ready local party for Rivera when the latter set his sight for the city’s top executive post, it was the mayor-elect’s 3 years of ground working and machinery building that eventually counted on election day.  Insiders said the Riveras, with no less than patriarch Rudy Rivera at the helm, eventually ran a parallel campaign for the mayor-elect.

Rep. Pacquiao, running unopposed in Sarangani, worked hard for his younger brother in General Santos City but he may have overstretched his resources this time.  He was even reported to have personally confronted the Barangay chair of San Jose when a convoy of supporters was flagged down Saturday evening, May 11, for reportedly doling out rice and, as claimed, envelopes reportedly containing cash.  His efforts fell short, however.  Or was it despite his efforts?  Is the Pacquiao magic not working in General Santos City?

On the flipside, one can also view Acharon’s victory over Ruel Pacquiao as an afterthought for the Antoninos.  Why did Darlene fail where Acharon was victorious? 

Again, some very hard thoughts to think about for political analysts and students of local politics.  Hopefully, the answers will soon come for Pacquiao and the rest of General Santos.

Re-electionist Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio is trailing councilor Ronnel Rivera in the Rappler Mirror Service which is posting election data results electronically nationwide as the lone accredited online website partner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Major news networks such as ABS-CBN, GMA7, TV5, and Solar News Network, as well as election watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), are getting their results from Rappler.

(READ MORE: Philippines: Former president Estrada wins Manila mayor race)

As of 5.04am Tuesday, Rivera is leading Antonino-Custodio by a comfortable margin of 11,154 votes. Rivera has accumulated 77,459 votes as against 66,305 by Custodio.

Rivera’s running mate re-electionist Shirlyn Bañas is also headed to a landslide victory while the vote count also points to a 7-5 victory for Rivera’s slate in the 12-seat city council.

It was thought to be a close race, so much so that the man behind the throne, Adelbert Antonino, frenetically and frantically began calling the shots four weeks before decision day.

Adelbert, father of Darlene, came out swinging in the last five days heading to the elections appearing on local news TV Brigada and going live on air in Bombo Radyo Gensan.

Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio is losing her re-election bid. Pic: COCOY SEXCION.

The former congressman and mayor of General Santos City ‘retired’ from active politics in 2001 when he resigned as mayor allowing then Vice Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr to campaign as the incumbent against another former mayor Rosalita Nuñez.  Acharon handily won over Nuñez.  So did his daughter Darlene as congresswoman representing the first district of General Santos City.

Ironically, it was another Rivera, Ryan the eldest brother of Ronnel, who lost to Darlene.

Not even the personal endorsement of President Benigno Aquino III and presidential sister Kris could arrest the political doom of the Antoninos who have not lost an election since 1995.  Even the still popular former President Joseph Estrada, abandoning UNA’s local slate in the city, made a last minute pitch for Darlene, but to no avail.

It is change – the campaign theme of Rivera – that is now brewing in the air.

Where did they fail?

For more than two decades the Antonino-founded Achievement with Integrity Movement (AIM) has been a powerful political party, able to dominate local elections to the point that all but one or two from the local opposition candidates are thrashed every elections. Those who did make it past the AIM onslaught to the council felt very lucky to be there.

But the real power behind AIM is Adelbert who was described by a political analyst as a shrewd and cunning operator.

Unfortunately, the Antonino’s tight grip – some claim even dictatorial – over AIM may have also slowly caused their fall from power.

The crack first emerged in 2010 when former ally and outgoing then vice mayor Florentina Congson defied the Antoninos and ran for mayor against Darlene.

Top vote gatherer and then outgoing councilor Ramon Milleza also ignored the Antoninos and ran for Congress against Acharon in 2010. Congson and Milleza are former members of AIM.

Not to be outdone, Loreto Acharon, younger brother of Rep. Pedro Acharon Jr also ran for mayor. They also alienated the Jugarap side of the Acharon Kabanay clan.

Although both lost, along with Nuñez, to Darlene, Antonino’s reported failing health and overbearing ways are said to have alienated allies who felt they have been dictated to long enough.

It is an open secret that no annual city budget passes through the city council without first going through Aquarius – the listed residence of the Antoninos.

Another former AIM member, Vice Mayor Shirlyn Bañas, also left the party in 2007 when she ran for mayor after topping the 2004 elections for city councilors.  Shirlyn lost but made a comeback in 2010 by winning as vice mayor.

Bañas, Milleza and Congson became living witnesses to Adelbert’s folly for power.

Councilor Ronnel Rivera is leading by a comfortable margin over Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio.FOTO BY COCOY SEXCION

Rivera himself submitted to an AIM selection process when he first ran in 2010.  When it was clear that he would not be accommodated as one of AIM’s bets in the city council race, he ran as an independent.  Rivera not only won, he topped the election.

Overstaying

Familiarity, they say breeds contempt.  One may also say overstaying one’s welcome is a recipe for disaster. Indeed, the Antoninos may have felt they were unbeatable ever since Adelbert learnt his lesson when he lost to Nuñez in 1995.  Since 1998, the Antoninos had never faced a serious challenge to their political throne.

They had loyal leaders and political wards and political machinery that have become envies for every politician in the region. For years, they marginalized the fractured and headless opposition. They belittled the opposition’s ability to rally and unite behind a single leadership. They underestimated the combined financial strength of Riveras and political clout of Rep. Manny Pacquiao who made a political compact. They said they survived even though they were political ‘enemies’ of at least three past presidents. Adelbert bragged about that on TV.  He said, until Aquino became president in 2010, there was only one time that they were friends with Malacañang – during Estrada’s time.  And it was a short-lived affair (Estrada was ousted from office going into the third year of his presidency).

Forced into the corner when it was clear they were about to lose, Adelbert said the city will be better off with President Aquino on their side. But by then it was already too late. People began to first murmur then openly argue it is time for change.

Losing power to power

One of the major blows to the Antoninos reign in the city is the pestering power outages.  Although these were more prolonged leading up to the 2010 elections, the perceived failure of the Antoninos to anticipate and address their recurrence during election time this year ignited the powder keg which eventually exploded when they misread and mishandled the issue.

Darlene’s mother Lualhati Antonino cannot escape blame.  Lualhati, chair of Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), had always denied there is an acute power shortage in Mindanao.  As late as February she was still telling Philstar’s Edith Regalado that there is an excess of 65 megawatts that Napocor is not utilizing.  Before she became the MinDA chair and until April last year before the Mindanao Power Summit where the president was guest speaker, she had been accusing Napocor of creating an artificial shortfall to pave the entry of coal-fired power plants.

While the power problem in Mindanao is a matter of supply, it hurt the Antoninos even more when they pointed fingers and blamed Socoteco 2, the local electric cooperative.  When it didn’t work, they tried to introduce interim and stop gap measures.  They made a 180-degree turnaround on their position over the construction of the 200-MW coal fired power plant of the Alcantaras in Maasim, Sarangani.  But by then, the damage had become irreversible.

Losing the propaganda war

The Antoninos have never warmed to the local media. They dichotomized members of the local press into camps belonging to either their or the other side – only.  They ceased to reach out and failed “to open the house” so to speak.  They relied on their accomplishments which they said would take them through.

But the media can also be a reflection of the changing times.  The local press were camping in droves on the other camp. When it was crunch time and the Antoninos needed the press to air their side, they were left like the boys who cried wolf. They had to pay expensive air time and to launch negative ads to arrest Darlene’s free-fall from political power. But that came a little bit too late, too.

Olympus has fallen

There will be long and hard reflection as the Antoninos head to the rainy days after a very long summer. Only time will tell if they will be able to bounce back like they did in 1995.  But the situation may no longer similar and in their favor three years from now.

For the first time, they are actually out of power with only Rep. Acharon left to carry on the torch. But Acharon will also have to fend off future challenges and will have to do it alone after barely sneaking past Rogelio Pacquiao. If ever, the 2013 election told us that when the high and the mighty fall out of political grace, it is like Olympus has fallen.

Conduct of the elections here however was generally peaceful although charges and countercharges of harassment and vote-buying were hurled against each other by the two dominant local political parties the morning before the elections.

On Sunday, the lawyers of Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao filed their formal complaint against San Jose barangay chair Alfredo Belgica for allegedly harassing supporters who were delivering provisions for their headquarters in the barangay Saturday evening.

Belgica however claimed a Starex van, escorted by 3 motorcycles, was loaded with 7 bags of rice.  He also told police the supporters of Pacquiao were carrying money.

He also claimed he was mauled by the bodyguards of Pacquiao who rushed to the scene.

Pacquiao later appeared at the Fatima police station to report that Belgica fired his gun and destroyed the windshield of the Starex van.

Belgica is known supporter of Pacquiao’s rival political party, the Achievement with Integrity Movement (AIM).

Pacquiao, on the other hand is bankrolling the candidacy of his brother Rogelio (Ruel), who is running against AIM’s Rep. Pedro Acharon Jr.

Acharon is running for re-election in the first district of South Cotabato which includes the city of General Santos.

Police authorities here advised both parties to file their formal complaints.

Meanwhile, voting was suspended for more than 20 minutes in cluster Precincts 78-79 in Barangay Apopong after the PCOS machine briefly malfunctioned at around 9:30 in the morning.

Voting however resumed 20 minutes.

The same problem occurred in Precinct 254 in Lagao at 12:00 noon, according to city hall employee Avel Manansala.

At around 11:30 am, mayoral candidate Ronnel Rivera (People Champ Movement-UNA) cast his vote in Precinct 121 in at the Cahilsot Elementary School in Barangay Calumpang.

Mayoral candidate Ronnel Rivera casting his vote.FOTO BY COCOY SEXCION

Rivera said voting generally went smoothly although he also received reports of temporary malfunctioning of PCOS machines.

Rivera is challenging re-electionsit Darlene Antonino-Custodio who is yet to cast her vote in Barangay Apopong.

An aide said the mayor will cast her vote later in the afternoon.

Power outages in South Cotabato

In separate developments, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat plunged into darkness Sunday afternoon.

Areas covered by the franchise of South Cotabato 1 Electric Cooperative (Socoteco 1) and Sultan Kudarat province were cut off from the Mindanao power grid and were without power supply for more than 15 minutes beginning 4pm today, according to reports reaching Rappler.

Socoteco 1 general manager Santiago Tudio told a local reporter in Koronadal that a 69-KV line near Tacurong City tripped off, cutting off power in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

Power was restored 15 minutes later but supply was reportedly still erratic.

It was not immediately known what caused the tripping off but heavy rains were reported in Sultan Kudarat Monday afternoon.

“Power tripped off two times before it went off for 15 minutes,” a Rappler source said in a text message.

Milfrance Capulong, Mindanao media relations officer of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, said she was not aware of the situation but assured that the issue will be addressed soon.

Further power outage could delay election results in the two provinces although the Commission on elections has assured that delivery of the counting of ballots will not be affected by power outages.

The Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines are equipped with 24-hr long battery supply and can be counted on to transmit results even during complete blackout.

Many of the clustered precincts in the said two provinces are located in remote villages which could endanger the safety of board of election inspectors and watchers in the said voting places.

Councilor Ronnel Rivera, who is contesting Custodio, said the people ahead in the line volunteered to accommodate him and saw no problem with it.

He said he took the offer and did not see any irregularity in the manner he was accommodated.  Rivera arrived at the Cahilsot Elementary School in Barangay Calumpang at 11:30.  He emerged from Precinct 121 after less than 10 minutes.

He faced the local TV crew and fielded some questions from its reporter here before heading home.

Acharon on the other hand voted early and formed the line.  It took him an hour before he filled up his ballots.  His wife also voted along with him

The congressman from the first district cast his vote at the Pedro Acharon Sr. Elementary School in Barangay Dadiangas West.

Acharon claimed the names of their children were not in the voters list.

Meanwhile, Mayor Custodio opted to vote late in the afternoon after a long cue of early voters in the morning. 

Re-electionist Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio

Like Acharon, Custodio also formed the line and waited for more than one hour in her polling precinct in Barangay Apopong.

Acharon and Custodio are partymates at the Achievement with Integrity Movement.

Barangay Apopong village chair Rogelio Pacquiao likewise did not form the line and said he was accommodated by his constituents.

Pacquiao, younger brother of Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, is running for congress in the first district of South Cotabato against Acharon.

If the power issue has become a thorn in the side of re-electionist mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio, the latest poster caper against her rivals could become a game-changer.

Her lone opponent Ronnel Rivera, who topped the 2010 race for city councillors despite running as independent, was forced into defensive mode after 10 alleged supporters were caught Tuesday evening hauling away torn candidate posters of the Achievement with Integrity Movement (AIM), Antonino-Custodio’s party.

Rivera, running under the Pacquiao-founded People’s champ Movement-UNA, denied giving any orders to anybody to to remove posters but the Antoninos are not letting him get away lightly after weeks of placating angry residents over the pestering power outages in the city.

The triumvirate, from left, of Rep. Manny Pacquiao, his brother Rogelio and mayoralty candidate Ronnel Rivera is trying to dislodge the Antoninos. Pic: Edwin Espejo.

Three weeks ago a company purportedly doing a market profile survey was said to have included voter preferences for mayor in the city.  While the survey was not officially released, the numbers – as shown to this author – painted a very grim picture for the incumbent.  The survey covered six of the city’s most populated barangays.  The undecideds were at a negligible 3.5 percent of the voters and it included Lagao which is a bastion of settlers and old timers.  Original settlers and residents in the city tend to go for the status quo. The survey suggests voter preferences even in the conservative districts of the city to be defying traditional conventions.  We are not at liberty to release the figures and the name of the company that did the survey due to source confidentiality but the results should have reached the camp of AIM if their intelligence people are worth their salt.

But the flurry of offensives from the camp of the Antoninos suggests they have done their job.  On April 27, President Benigno Aquino III made his second visit to ostensibly campaign for his senatorial slate.  It, however, turned into an all-out endorsement of Custodio with a noticeable presidential poke at her opponent.

Re-electionist Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio needed a presidential push from Pres. Benigno Aquino III to propr her re-election bid.FOTO BY RONALD VELASQUEZ

No matter how the Antoninos will deny it, they exerted their influence over the business community to issue a statement blaming the power outages on the electric cooperative to deflect the heat from Custodio. 

It was followed by the arrival of Kris Aquino and re-electionist Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero and a ‘show of force’ from the fishing industry.

In the week heading into the elections, AIM is repeatedly airing on local TV portions of the speeches of the president and Custodio.  AIM has launched an all-out offensive. 

Custodio said they have padded their lead over Rivera in recent days and the poster antic was a desperate move by her rivals.  (A source earlier said the Antoninos also did their own survey where Darlene is said to be enjoying a slim 3-point lead over Rivera, a negligible figure if the margin of error is factored in.  The said survey cannot be independently verified).

The Rivera camp, on the other hand, is in a ‘protect the lead’ mode and reportedly told political leaders and campaigners to “hold the line.”

Many conceded his strong challenge left the Antoninos fending off his challenge. But he may be losing the propaganda war heading into the homestretch.

Unlike in 2010 when Rivera flooded TV with commercial spots, he appears to be abandoning the propaganda blitz and relying on the ground-level machinery his camp has built over the last three years.

His campaign appears to have peaked and the momentum suddenly brought to a screeching halt.

Conversely, Antonino may have regained lost ground.  The re-electionist mayor even admitted that the president’s personal endorsement gave her run a timely push.  She said anybody having a popular president on his or her side will have a decided advantage.

The momentum shift however may no longer sway the decided voters.

Could it be a battle for the undecided?

Pacquiao coming to the rescue of the beleaguered Alzate is expected as they have been allies since Day 1.

Solon however reportedly went out of his way to call a television station and demanded why it did not cover their press conference.

Assured of being the next governor of the province as he is running unopposed, Solon looks like he is already throwing his weight around.

Solon should not begrudge the press if it will not give anyone the mileage they are expecting just because they think they should.

The press is both an advertiser and consumer of a product that is news.  If your product stinks, it won’t buy it.

Alzate already had his fair side of coverage when he was first convicted.  He was given air time when he claimed innocence and cried political harassment.  His claim to an appeal was duly covered by the press.

But the press can only take so much of the charade.

Alzate is a convicted felon as he was also sentenced by the Sandiganbayan to 10 to 11 years in prison for siphoning P300,000 from the countryside development fund of former Rep. Erwin Chiongbian.  And unless the court says so otherwise, he will be a convicted felon hiding behind the cloak of his elective position.  True, he still has a pending appeal before the Supreme Court and there is a chance his conviction will be reversed.

But Alzate only has himself to blame if the Ombudsman recently ordered his removal from office.  Alzate was remiss in his defense and did not file his appeal when the Ombudsman convicted him for grave misconduct and dishonesty in the administrative case filed against him in 2004.  The decision, then issued by former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, was recently upheld by the Court of Appeals.  It carried with it the penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office.

The Marcelo order was not served to Alzate as he lost in the 2004 election, however.

In 2010, he was re-elected to the provincial board and became a staunch critic of outgoing Gov. Miguel Rene Dominguez.

He now blames politics for his ongoing travails and continues to lash out at Dominguez although the latter is no longer running for any public office.

Herein lays the true test of Solon’s character as the future governor of Sarangani.

While it is understandable for Solon to make peace and acquiesce to his once political adversaries for political survival, he cannot expect everybody to agree with him all the way when the ethos of the time calls for him to be an upright man.

Solon became the vice governor of Sarangani when he was plucked out from political obscurity by the Dominguezes with only being a Chiongbian (his mother is Lucile, daughter of the late Rep. James Chiongbian and former Gov. Priscilla Chiongbian) as his ticket to politics.  And by the way, he was chosen over his cousin Bridget Chiongbian who reportedly showed propensity to follow the footsteps of traditional politicians before her.

Solon was chosen as gratitude to the Chiongbians who also picked the outgoing governor’s father Paul Rene Dominguez as the would-be candidate for governor in 2004 against the graft-ridden administration of then Gov. Miguel Escobar.  Alzate was part of the clique that the Sandiganbayan found to have fleeced the provincial coffers.  Paul Rene Dominguez filed but later withdrew his candidacy to pave way for the unexpected and unscheduled entry of his son Miguel Rene’s entry into politics.

Solon is now conveniently casting aside history for the expediency of the time.

The vice governor, who will soon become the governor, must however remember that history is never written ahead of time.

And history will always be kind to men of undisputable character.

For the first time since they began to hold political fort in General Santos City in the southern Philippines in 1992, the Antoninos have never felt so threatened and so in danger of losing their once impregnable political fiefdom than they are now. So much so that they have put a spin on everything that the opposition is throwing at them.

Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio is facing the hardest fight of her political career.

The biggest of course is the recent and unexpected visit of President Benigno Aquino III who was here to again make a plug for his senatorial slate.  The president, however, took more time to show support for re-electionist Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio rather than his senatorial bets.

Going house to house with Antonino-Custodio and devoting more than half of his speech at the indoor rally to urge the audience to give her another mandate are not-so-subtle signs of troubles for the  mayor. T

The communications team of the city mayor gave their own spin on the presidential visit by praising Antonino-Custodio for being so lucky to have the president on her side.  And for the unprecedented presidential endorsement she is getting in this part of the southcentral Mindanao region.

For added punctuation, the Antoninos are now marshaling their forces and allies to deflect the blame for the crippling power outages that has been directed at the mayor, right or wrongly.

But the opposition has now found even more munitions against them after the business community seemingly parroted the line of the Antoninos blaming Socoteco II for the city’s power shortage woes during a hastily organized press conference by the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Friday last week.

The normally sober and conservative business community suddenly became vociferous and combative, even disowning some of their own in calling for the “retirement” Socoteco II manager Rodoflo Ocat and then withdrawing support for its Board of Directors.  But instead of unifying the city’s disenchanted community, they only fanned the flame of discontent.  So much so that some of their board of directors are said to be contemplating resignation over the way the press statement “was rammed down their throats.”

To illustrate how the power issue is hurting the core in the Antonino campaign to have Darlene re-elected and prevent her lone opponent Ronnel Rivera from seizing city hall, the usually media-aloof Antoninos have lately been reaching out to the press and called a press conference Wednesday to yet again tackle the power crisis that is bringing the city to a standstill.

To their credit, the Antoninos have now realized that they were mistaken when they nonchalantly dismissed the power crisis criticism aimed them. They have finally found stop-gap measures to address the 7-hour daily brownout that is causing serious discontent among the city’s residents.

The city mayor’s mother, Mindanao Development Authority chair Lualhati Antonino, had always insisted that the power crisis facing Mindanao was artificial and orchestrated to allow the entry of fossil-fired power plants.  She now concedes that the power crisis is real and that industry players who raised the red flags six years ago were right after all.  And that the power plant project of the Sarangani Energy Corporation in Maasim, Sarangani they once loudly opposed is now, in fact, a strategic solution to the city’s power shortage woes.

Whether they have made a timely adjustment or have come to realization too much too late, we will know in less than two weeks.

If there is one singular issue that will sink or swim with the Antoninos, it is power – the commodity kind.

But is it not ironic that the power issue could topple them out of power?

Has Olympus begun to fall?

Prudence and curiosity over what the businessmen had to say made me decide to set aside my planned story.

Like many reporters and members of the local media, however, I did not expect a very strongly worded statement from the otherwise sober and conservative business community.  Its press statement virtually pinned all the blame on the pestering power outages in the city squarely to Socoteco 2 – or more disturbingly, to its general manager and members of the board of directors of the electric cooperative.

The hastily called press conference organized by the Chamber Friday morning is unjustifiably fanning and misdirecting the flames of discontent, instead of sobering up and finding real solutions to the real problems of power supply shortage in the city.

As I told one member of the board of directors of the Chamber, the statement was rather harshly worded, its timing very off and insensitive to the prevailing political climate in the city.

I would normally let outbursts of frustration and anger from the business community pass as they are losing heavily due to power outages as a result of increased fuel consumption for their generating sets.  For small, unfortunate businessmen who cannot afford to buy generating sets, they simply close shop during power interruptions.

But disowning one of their own in a manner like they are indicting and impeaching the manager and entire board of the Socoteco 2 bespeaks of their own smugness and arrogance.

The chamber fully and consciously knew that the power problem in the city is a matter of supply and not of distribution which is the principal function of the cooperative.  Why force Socoteco 2 to take full responsibility, as demanded by the Chamber, for conditions and a situation it has no control of whatsoever?

They accused Socoteco 2 of having poor foresight and for failing to prevent the power outages in the city.

I wonder how the Chamber would react if Socoteco 2 shows it copies of all correspondences, proposals, invitations to bid and minutes of the cooperative’s consultations with various stakeholders, local government units included? 

When Socoteco 2 entered into a power sales agreement (PSA) with Therma Marine Inc for an initial 12MW supply or diesel-power supply in 2011, the chamber did not raise a howl even if there were no consultations made and even if it meant higher electricity bills for consumers. Socoteco 2 would eventually raise the supply contract from Therma Marine to the current 30MW.  Again, nobody seriously questioned the additional supply deal with Therma Marine.

When Socoteco 2 announced it was going to enter into negotiations with then Conal Holdings Corporation for a base load supply in anticipation of the then projected supply shortfall, everybody wanted to put in their share of suggestions, if not opposition, that it took close to three years before it was able to sign a PSA with Sarangani Energy Corporation, Conal Holdings’ legal and financial successor in interest.  The Chamber should be reminded that the prolonged process prevented the delivery of supply for Socoteco which would have started at the end of this year, 2013.

Socoteco 2 also negotiated with Mapalad Power Corporation for a 30MW supply even if the rehabilitation of the former Iligan Diesel Power Plant is still underway to ensure that part of the city’s power woes will be addressed.  Mapalad will be able to deliver the full 30MW supply contract by August.  Nobody also cared in this one.

On the other hand, the chamber also did not raise serious concerns when, despite the prevailing power supply shortfall, the city government allowed, and is allowing, several big ticket investors to establish shop in the city.  The entry of new large companies has been thinning out and will continue to thin out electricity distribution to Socoteco 2’s 135,000 metered consumers.  The chamber has also belatedly questioned why Dole Philippine is now drawing an aggregate 4.8MWfrom Socoteco 2 that it once drew from the National Power Corporation.  They argue that it is only very recently that they knew Dole is now drawing power requirement from Socoteco 2.  Is Dole not a member of the Chamber?

Did the Chamber ever bother do the math on how the power consumption of SM City Gensan and Dole Philippines translates into how many hours of brownouts for residential consumers of Socoteco 2?   In addition, did it calculate how much their bills add up per kilowatt hour for the rest of Socoteco 2 consumers as a result of the rate increase in the blended cost of electricity consumption?

True, and I agree, the PSA  Socoteco 2 entered into with Peakpower Energy, a subsidiary of A. Brown, needs scrutiny.  I am, for one, questioning the wisdom and the timing of such an agreement.  It is a 15-year build-operate-transfer 20.9MW bunker-fired peaking plant.  I have told both the representative of A. Brown and Socoteco 2 that they will find rough sailing in this one.  Not because they lacked consultation but rather because the supply horizon 18 months from now will have already improved and will render A. Brown’s offered rates too prohibitive and the PSA provisions unacceptable.  Even then, A. Brown will not be able to deliver its power supply until after a year from now, granting it already is given a limited notice to proceed with construction. 

The Socoteco 2-Peakpower PSA, however, still needs approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission and it is never too late to intervene and oppose the deal on valid and justifiable grounds.  But as of last night, the Chamber said they are yet to file their intervention.  The Chamber says it is not even sure the PSA is already submitted to the ERC.  

The power crisis in Mindanao is a national problem that involves policy push and direction. Who says Socoteco 2 can solve a national problem?

I say the timing of the issuance of the statement of the Chamber was very insensitive, if not suspect.

While the business community generally takes a neutral stand during political exercises such as elections, they should not be impervious to public sentiments.

They know the city is divided between two political camps and each camp has been capitalizing on the power woes to further their campaigns.

Everybody knows the opposition, rightly or wrongly, is using the power crisis to dent the incumbent’s image.  And everyone also knows that the incumbent is laying the blame on Socoteco 2.

While I am not accusing anyone in the Chamber of falling into the Venus fly trap that is partisan politics, I did expect its members to be more circumspect and prudent in issuing politically charged statements during a politically charged environ.

In every campaign, political or for a cause, timing is sometimes everything.

Aquino is also here to give a strong, final push for the re-election bid of General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio who is in a tight race with lone rival Ronnel Rivera, the official candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio is facing a big challenge in Ronnel Rivera.

Rivera topped the 2010 race for the city’s 12-seat city council despite running as an independent.

Bebe-I Gonzales, a close aide of former Rep. Lualhati Antonino, mother of the incumbent mayor, said the president will personally endorse Darlene to ensure that the planned infrastructure projects in the city will push through.

The re-electionist mayor is running under the administration coalition.

Antonino-Custodio told ABS-CBN Socsksargen, Aquino will address the city’s crippling power supply problem. Last week, he blamed Mindanao leaders for their alleged failure to address the island’s critical power supply.

This is the second time the president is appearing in General Santos to endorse his senatorial ticket.

In February, Aquino told the crowd in an indoor rally that he will be “borrowing” Darlene in 2016, hinting at a possible crack in the Senate race for the 41-year-old city mayor.

Needed push

An Antonino-Custodio loss in the mayoral race in General Santos would be embarrassing for the president.

Rivera is running under Sarangani Rep Manny Pacquiao’s People’s Champ Movement which is capitalizing on the daily seven-hour power outages to criticize Mayor Antonino-Custodio. The opposition is blaming the city mayor for her alleged failure to anticipate the effects of the power supply problem that was already predicted as early as 2007.

The Antoninos have kept a tight grip on the city’s political landscape, keeping the congressional seat for the first district of South Cotabato from 1987 until 2010 when their political ally former City Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr traded positions with Darlene.

Adelbert Antonino, father of Darlene, was the first elected congressman of the first district of South Cotabato when Congress was restored in 1987. Adelbert ran for city mayor in the 1992 elections, beating then re-electionist Mayor Rosalita Nuñez.

Adelbert’s wife Lualhati ran for congress in the same year and served in the House of Representatives until 2001.

It was then Darlene’s turn to run for congress in the same district in 2001.

Darlene has never been beaten in an election, unlike her father who lost to Nuñez in 1995 and her mother who also lost in the mayoral race against Nuñez in 1988. Darlene, however, is facing her most difficult challenge yet against Rivera who can match and even outspend the Antoninos.

The Riveras are the city’s richest family with a conglomerate anchored on their vast fishing business. They are also into banking, real estate, hotel and hardware chains, lending and pawnshop business, printing, canning and scores of other businesses.

Ronnel Rivera has also forged an alliance with Filipino boxing great Pacquiao whose brother is running for congress against Acharon.

They have barely touched the ground. But by the size of the crowds they pulled for their proclamation rallies, there might actually be a race between the scions of two of the city’s richest families in General Santos City.

Matching warm bodies to warm bodies, the opposition ticket here gathered more than enough supporters to have re-electionist Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio and, some say, her father on their toes.

While rallies are not sure fire indication of political strength, being able to mobilize a bigger crowd than the administration points to plenty of organization and logistics for the opposition People’s Champ Movement.

Opposition mayoralty candidate Ronnel Rivera, a city councilor who topped the 2010 elections while running as an independent, made an impressive show of force Friday evening (April 5) when his camp gathered at least 10,000 supporters at the same Oval Plaza where on March 31, Antonino-Custodio could only muster at the most 7,000.

Rep. Manny Pacquiao at the PCM rally.

It also helped Rivera that he has friend Rep. Manny Pacquiao as a close political ally, easily the night’s biggest draw.   The Sarangani congressman arrived in grand style landing his helicopter in the middle of the plaza shortly before the rally started.  Now, how about that for ostentatious display of wealth for you?

Rep. Pacquiao’s brother Rogelio (Roel) is running for congressman in the first district of South Cotabato which covers the towns Tampakan, Tupi and Polomolok in addition to the vote rich General Santos City.

Crowd estimates, however, are very subjective unless an actual headcount is made.

Five days before the PCM rally was AIM's opening salvo.

Reversal of fortunes

Many elections ago – including the 2010 electoral race – the Antoninos were derided for their alleged penchant for overspending and making the election very expensive for any candidate to have a shot at unseating them from being the real power behind whoever is occupying city hall.

Since 1987, the Antoninos have also maintained a tight grip over the First Congressional District of South Cotabato broken only in 2010 when then Antonino-Custodio’s term limits forced her to swap positions with now Rep. Pedro ‘Jun’ Acharon Jr.  The Antoninos and the Acharons are longtime allies whose common political roots trace back from the moribund Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) party of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Not even Rep. Manny Pacquiao big spending was good enough to unseat Antonino-Custodio from her congressional seat in 2007.  Pacquiao reportedly spent more than P120 million (US$2.9 million) in his failed first bid to become a congressman.  The Antoninos are believed to have spent more than that.

In 2010, Pacquiao transferred residence and ran for congress in nearby Sarangani where he won handily over another scion of an old political clan, the Chiongbians.  Pacquiao allegedly threw away more than US$6.6 million (P356M at 54:1 peso-dollar exchange rate) to gain a seat in the House of Representatives, a spending ratio of almost 4:1 against the reported P100 million that his opponent, Roy Chiongbian, spent.  This year, the Pacquiao’s and the Chiongbians are already allies in Sarangani.

On Sunday, March 31, it was Antonino-Custodio’s turn to wail and warn against the ‘money politics’ of her opponent.

While Pacquiao is not running against the Antonino, he has always coveted the city’s plum position and is fielding his brother for congress.

He now has joined hands with the Riveras, probably the richest family in General Santos City, who are also the city’s largest producers and processors of tuna.  The Riveras’ wealth comes from diversified business interests as they are also into real estate and real estate development, shipbuilding, canning and tin can manufacturing, hardware and hotel chains, banking and finance (they owned Penbank), retailing, printing and packaging and agri-businesses.

Mayoralty candidate Ronnel Rivera

Combined with Pacquiao’s fame and wealth, Rivera now has reputation preceding him; and something the Antoninos had before and still have now – money, which, as everybody now knows, win elections.

The Antoninos have no known business interests in the city although a source close to them said they own a tuna catcher fleet that is reportedly being run by a local tuna producer.

They, however, belong to the old rich families in the Philippines who also made their fortune in logging in Mindanao during the 1960s.  The Antoninos are originally from Luzon where they still own vast tracts of land.  They also own shares of stocks in various corporations, including a reported substantial stake before at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation.  They also have prime real estate properties in Manila and in Davao City.

The Riveras and the Antoninos were former business partners when they, along with another fishing magnate Marfenio Tan, put up the local station then of ABS-CBN in the early ’90s.   But their relationship was shattered when, in 2001, Ronnel’s elder brother Ryan ran for congress against Antonino-Custodio.

The Riveras reportedly spent P20 million in losing the race for Ryan.

Where is the message?

Apart from that they are rich and about the same age, nothing much really separates Rivera, who is 41 years old, and the 40-year-old Antonino-Custodio.

There are no compelling reasons – therefore no captivating message from both camps – why one should not be voted into power over the other except perhaps one has been overstaying while the other is gatecrashing.

The overused catchphrase ‘change’ worked incredibly for one American president, but it does not really resonate in the escalating Antonino-Rivera rivalry, although the Antoninos may be facing the strongest challenge to their political ascendancy in the city yet.

They are known to keep a tight leash at the 12- elective seat city council where all but one are members of the Antonino-founded Achievers with Integrity Movement.  The current and past city councils have been accused as rubberstamps of the Antoninos where nothing ever gets done without passing through Aquarius, the code name of their residence here in General Santos City.

Re-electionist Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio

As a result, they always got what they wanted from their city councilors.  And they always had their way in running the city.

The Antoninos are riding, nay gloating, on the unprecedented and continuing growth of the city after the 1986 EDSA Revolt.  From a forlorn place when it became a chartered city in 1968, General Santos has risen to become the third largest local economy in Mindanao – anchored chiefly on the fishing industry.

Ironically, it is in the fishing industry where the Riveras built their fortune and many local businessmen are wary how a Rivera administration will impact local business here.

The Riveras will certainly make their case that with or without the Antoninos, the tuna industry would still have made the city a prime investment destination and what it is today.

Sources who do not want to be identified, however, said Mayor Antonino-Custodio still has the support of majority of the fishing industry players in the city and local businessmen who are wary of the growing clout of the Riveras.

But the Antoninos do have their own reputation of getting back at businessmen who cross political swords with them.  They have earned the reputation of vindictiveness, something many businessmen here also resent.

For the Antoninos, their rallying point is an old cliché that “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” in blocking the assaults of their political rivals.

Rivera, on the other hand, is assembling a hodge-podge of known and longtime Antonino enemies and critics, many of them had failed before to win against the well-oiled machinery of their well-entrenched rivals.

To his and to Rep. Manny Pacquiao’s credit, they were able to unite the opposition against the Antoninos for the first time.

Still Rivera is yet to capture the imagination of voters with one catch phrase that will separate him from the incumbent city mayor.

While in previous elections the Antoninos always had the upper hand in terms of machinery, the first week of the campaign period is proving that the combined forces of the Riveras and Pacquiaos are slowly catching up.

It now boils down to resources down the homestretch and in their willingness to outspend each other.

Otherwise, they will become a victim of their own reputations.  Both are moneyed but what if the flow of money will not come as expected?

In a report Monday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said the merger between the two giant Anglo-Swiss companies was moved further to May as concerns over their combined global market share are still giving China some jitters.

The anticipated US$76bn union between Xstrata Plc, the world’s fourth largest copper producer, and Glencore will make them the world’s fourth largest diversified mining company.  The merger will also make the two companies the world’s largest commodities trading firm.

The merger was first announced in February 2012.

The Glencore-Xstrata union is so huge several countries raised concerns, among them Qatar and South Africa.  But after hurdling obstacles from regulators from both countries, it is yet to obtain approval from the Chinese government.

China is the world’s largest consumer of copper concentrates and it is raising concerns over the market dominance of the merged companies in the trade of copper concentrates.

Xstrata Plc owns 62.75 per cent of SMI, which owns the world class Tampakan Copper and Gold Project, through its Australia-based subsidiary Xstrata Copper.

The reported union between Glencore and Xstrata could also involve a major shake-up in the top management of SMI as the latter’s chief executive officer Mick Davis earlier rued that the deal is reportedly already “a takeover and no longer a merger – that’s the reality of it.”

It could also affect the marketing strategy of SMI as Glencore owns The Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation (PASAR), the country’s sole copper smelter and refinery plant located in Leyte.

SMI has said it will export copper concentrates to Australia where it will be smelted and refined.

The mining company had already pushed forward its planned commercial production from 2016 to 2019 following delays in securing government permits.

In February this year, it finally was granted an environment compliance certificate although it still needs to get the approval of host local government units.

In 2010, however, the local government unit of South Cotabato however passed an ordinance banning open pit mining in the province. 

Re-electionist Gov. Arthur Pingoy and his closest rival Rep. Daisy Avance-Fuentes have vowed to implement the ordinance “unless ordered by the court.”

SMI has already declared it will employ open pit mining method to extract copper and gold ore deposits in its mining site in the remote mountain village of Tablu in Tampakan, South Cotabato.

The Tampakan project is touted as having the world’s largest untapped copper and gold deposits with a potential annual average production of 375,000 tons of copper in concentrate for at least 17 years. 

Local politics and power generation

Despite warnings and alarms raised by various industry players, local government executives from General Santos, Sarangani and South Cotabato never held formal meetings – together – to discuss and agree on the severity of the power supply problem Socoteco 2 was already anticipating in 2009, highlighted and made more pronounced by the crippling power outages throughout Mindanao in the first quarter of 2010.

The local government of General Santos City, which consumes more than 80 percent of the power load of Socoteco and where the bulk of its present 135,000 consumers are located, failed to take lead in arranging a summit among LGUs to address the issue.

Unfortunately, some local officials in General Santos City helped spread information that the power supply problem was contrived and manipulated to allow the entry of coal-fired and other thermal plants in Mindanao.

The Sangguniang Panlungsod of General Santos City even passed a resolution asking the EMB to recall the ECC it issued to Conal in 2009.

Then-City Mayor Pedro Acharon, now a member of the House of Representatives and seeking re-election this May, said his major concern over the then being proposed Conal Holdings power plant was its effects to the environment.

But the former mayor also said that he was told by members of the fishing industry here that unless new generating plants are constructed, the existing generating capacity in Mindanao will no longer be enough to address demand of the fishing industry for more power supply.

Back then -  in 2009 – 4 of the city’s 6 canning plants were already using coal to fire their boilers.  Acharon said that the canning plants were able to save more than 50 per cent of their electricity bill by using coal as fuel.

Richie Rivera, chief executive of RD Group, also disclosed its canning plant Philbest was then already consuming about 5 metric tons of coal every month.

Incumbent Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio can’t feign ignorance either.

Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio

She was a member of the 14thCongress, in fact on her third 3-year term, when the power crisis exploded in Mindanao.

Her mother Lualhati Antonino was a member of the 11th Congress when the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, otherwise known as Republic Act No. 9136, was passed into law.

The city mayor, therefore, had been adequately briefed and had access to information on the real score of the Mindanao power crisis.

But the city government should also take blame over the mounting power supply deficit in the city.  Despite the warnings, the city continued to allow big ticket companies to set up shop in here without looking into the capability of Socoteco 2 to supply their power needs. 

When she registered her opposition to the PSA between Socoteco 2 and SEC, appearing even during the public hearing of ERC held in the city last year, it was clear the city mayor knew what was happening.

But the opposition of the city government cannot just be taken at face value.

It runs deep into the heart of politics and economic interests of the region’s powerful political families and as well as their little chronicled political differences.

Mayor Antonino-Custodio and Sarangani Gov. Miguel Rene Dominguez are scions of two of the most influential families in Soccsksargen area (Region 12).  They are both young and well- educated.  The third local executive that should also be concerned about the power supply problem of Socoteco 2 is South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Pingoy.

The three however have never sat in one round table for serious discussion.

The mayor is the eldest of two daughters of former General Santos City Mayor Adelbert Antonino while Gov. Dominguez is the only son of four children of former Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Paul Rene Dominguez and nephew of former Agriculture Secretary Carlos ‘Sonny’ Dominguez.

Sources said Antonino did not take it lightly when Paul Dominguez was seen by the former as having supported former Mayor Rosalita Nuñez in the 1998 elections.  Antonino won over Nuñez who was seeking re-election after defeating him in 1995.

In 2001, President Joseph Estrada was ousted as president in a popular uprising at the height of his impeachment trial.

Antonino is a close friend of Estrada and was the former president’s unofficial liaison officer to the Senate during the impeachment trial.  Sources said the two are also drinking buddies.

Paul Dominguez is married to Rosevida Alcantara, one of the children of late Conrado Alcantara who opened up cattle ranches in the then undivided South Cotabato in 1965.  The Alcantaras still own rights to vast tracts of lands, a couple or two of them in General Santos City, that are now under the names of the children of the late family patriarch.

Tomas Alcantara, son of Conrado, was trade undersecretary during the administration of the late President Corazon Aquino but was also among the alleged ‘oligarchs’ named by former NEDA secretary Romulo Neri who were close to former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Alcantaras control and own majority of the shares in the Southern Philippines Power Corporation, Western Mindanao Power Corporation, and the Sarangani Energy Corporation.  It recently re-acquired the Mapalad Power Corporation (formerly Iligan Diesel Power Plant).  The IDPP was formerly the two-engine Northern Mindanao Power Corporation, built under the build-operate-transfer scheme in 1992 and 1993.  It was turned over to the Napocor after 15 years.

The former Ramos cabinet secretary however has shunned away from politics during the last few years.

The Antoninos arrived in the province about the same period, making their fortunes from logging in Kiamba and Maitum, now part of Sarangani.

Adelbert however made his mark in politics by dominating the local scene since he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1988.  He retired from local politics in 2001, resigning as city mayor 3 months before the elections that year.

Adelbert Antonino is now seldom seen in the city but is believed to be still at the helm of local politics in General Santos City.  His wife is the current chair of Mindanao Development Authority which carries a cabinet rank in the Aquino goverment.

In the March 27 Power Forum in General Santos, Mayor Antonino-Custodio again chided Socoteco 2 for entering into PSA with SEC without ‘properly’ consulting the local government.

However, questions may also be asked why the local government of General Santos City did not use the same argument when Socoteco 2 purchased power supply from Therma Marine and why Secretary Lualhati Antonino is now suddenly pushing for modular generating sets which costs the consumers will shoulder heavily.

Have their historical political differences also affected the search for immediate and strategic solutions to the power problem in the region?  Or has power, as a political issue, again become hostage to politics?

It is clear that the power will be one of the dominant issues in the local elections in General Santos City where the city mayor is seeking re-election but is under fire from the opposition for perceived failure to address the recurring problem in the city.

Gov. Dominguez, who has refused to publicly discuss the power problem of Socoteco 2, will have served his full consecutive three 3-year term limits by the time the elections are over and is taking a leave from politics.

EPIRA failure in Mindanao

When power generation was taken out from government function upon the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or RA 9136, it heralded the beginning of the end of cheap power regime in Mindanao.

In the year when EPIRA was passed, Mindanao had a surplus in capacity well above the required reserve capacity.

But within the first 5 years of EPIRA, the only significant new entrant in the Mindanao grid was 210MW coal-fired power plant owned by STEAG State Power in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, commissioned in 2006.

Over the next 10 years, however, demand grew while available capacities went down until demand and supply leveled off in 2009 and plunged into deficit starting 2010.

No new entrants ventured into power generation in the island then because private investors were reluctant to expose capital and risk competition from cheap hydropower sources still in government hands.

And since the law also mandated that all generating assets owned by the government (Napocor) should be privatized within the 10-year period after the passage of RA 9136, poor maintenance of these assets by the heavily indebted Napocor further led to their deterioration.  Rehabilitation of these antiquated and aging hydroelectric power plants was stalled.  At present, actual capacities of these hydroelectric are now down to less than 600MW from their combined installed capacities of 982.5MW.

Understanding capacities to distinguish actual available capacities. Actual available capacity as of March 31, 2013 was only 991MW according to NGCP. Source: DOE

Privatizing these Agus hydroelectric plants complex however is complicated and complex because the six cascading plants are separately located in two Lanao provinces but are using the same water source (Lake Lanao).  Awarding them to a single private entity would also place the entire Mindanao grid at the mercy of the winning bidder who can then seize control of more than 50 percent of the grid’s power supply once these plants are rehabilitated to their full capacities.

Besides, moves to privatize the Agus and Pulangi hydro power plants are facing resistance from lawmakers, local executives from Mindanao and electric cooperatives in the island.

Lately, however, two major power plant projects were launched in Mindanao which construction has already started.

These are the 300MW power plant of the Aboitiz in Davao City and the 200MW of Sarangani Energy Corporation.  Both are coal-fired power plant and have commercial production timetable between 2014 and 2016.

STEAG has also indicated it will increase its capacity by another 200MW while the Mt Apo Geothermal Power Plant, owned by the Energy Development Corporation, will also add another 50MW from its 108.4MW current production.  Also up in the drawing board is the 100MW San Ramon Power Plant in Zamboanga del Sur while San Miguel Corporation also announced it is building a 500MW power plant in Mindanao.

Projected energy mix in Mindanao by 2016

More than anything however, as in Luzon and Visayas, EPIRA has led to the skyrocketing of electricity cost in Mindanao as development of new hydro power plants and repair and rehabilitation of existing ones have been abandoned by the government.

In August last year, the International Energy Consultants said Metro Manila’s power rates are already the 9th highest among 44 distributors surveyed around the world.  Metro Manila rates are also the highest in Southeast Asia.

At the rate new fossil-fired generating capacities are being constructed, these energy sources will eventually dominate the component of the blended cost of electricity in Mindanao.

Vanishing power

Until 2006, hydroelectric power sources accounted for 60 percent of the total 1,850 MW dependable capacity in Mindanao.

In 2011, however, capacities from hydropower sources went down to 51 percent at 82 7MW for the Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric plants.  Although overall installed capacities increased to 2,022 MW as of April 2012, dependable capacity during the year was only 1,616.9 MW.

Mindanao capacity in 2011.Source: Department of Energy

But the real story in the island’s power supply problem lies in the actual capacity available on the grid.

Last year, for example, the contracted peak capacity of all distribution utilities in Mindanao totaled to 1,434.78MW but the average available capacity in the Mindanao grid last year was slightly below 1,200MW.  This year, contracted capacity by Napocor is down further to 941.35MW – a drop of 493.43MW from last year’s contracted capacities and way below the projected peak demand of 1,525.7 MW made by Mindanao Development Authority.  It also simply meant there is no longer enough capacity to meet demand in the island.

Department of Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said the reduction in available capacity in Mindanao is due to the de-rating of hydroelectric plants in the Agus and Pulangi power plant complexes.

He was merely stating a partial picture of the whole problem of generating capacities in the island.

The 80MW Agus I plant in Marawi City is now only producing 45MW.  Agus II (Saguiran, Lanao del Sur) is only churning out 120MW from its rated capacity of 180MW while the 200MW Agus VI in Fuentes, Iligan City is only delivering 50MW.  The Pulangi IV hydroelectric plant has an installed capacity of 255MW but is only producing less than 100MW due to heavy river silt.  During the height of the 2010 blackouts in Mindanao, Pulangi was only producing 40MW for three hours in a day.

“These are aging power plants. (They are) very old, their (available) capacities are low,” Petilla said.

The energy secretary said the government has set aside a P4.2bn budget to rehabilitate these aging power plants, including dredging of Pulangi River.

Until these are rehabilitated and new capacities are connected to the grid, he said, Mindanao will continue to experience power outages.

Creeping problem explodes

Apart from external factors beyond the control of Socoteco 2, such as generation allocation and transmission, what are the other elements that put the cooperative in a tight fix?

Contrary to its business name, Socoteco 2 is not a cooperative governed by the Cooperative Development Authority.  It gets its mandate from the National Electric Administration (NEA) that was created by the Marcosian edict Presidential Decree 269 as amended by another decree, PD 1645, and finally by Republic Act 9136.

Under PD 269, all electric cooperatives have the power to “generate, manufacture, purchase, acquire, accumulate and transmit electric power and energy, and to distribute, sell, supply and dispose” electric energy.

Socoteco 2 however has not given attention to generating its own energy source largely because of decades-old regime of readily available and cheap supply from hydroelectric sources.  Not until recently, when power supply and demand situation in Mindanao reached equilibrium and eventually tilted to the deficit side,

As early as 2007, warning bells were already raised on the looming power crisis on the island.  During the 16th annual Mindanao Business Conference held at KCC Mall Gensan, now Alsons Consolidated Resources president Tomas Alcantara announced they were going to build a coal-fired power plant with a capacity reaching up to 900MW in Sarangani to meet projected increase in demand for power supply and in anticipation then to the projected power crisis that will hit the island by 2011 – when supply will no longer be adequate to meet demand in Mindanao.

Socoteco 2 and most electric cooperatives then were also gearing up and anticipating the full privatization of all remaining assets of Napocor, including the sale of the Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric plants.  Socoteco 2’s contract with Napocor expired in 2011.

Napocor had earlier sold two power barges moored in Mindanao, Power barge 117 and 118, which have a combined capacity of 100MW and decommissioned its 56MW diesel plant in General Santos.

In 2009, Socoteco announced it is opening bid for the supply of additional capacity in anticipation to increase in local demand for power.

Unfortunately, there were only two bidders at the time which, under its charter and ERC rules, resulted in failed bidding.

The bidders then were only Agus 3 and Conal Holdings Corporation, the power holdings company of Alsons Consolidated Resources.  Both offered to supply base load capacity for indicative projects.  Agus 3 is an erstwhile hydroelectric power plant project of Napocor but was mothballed as it required inundating villages for the construction of a dam.

A group of private investors is now pursuing the project, the application of which was referred to Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).  PSALM manages all remaining generating assets of Napocor as mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) or RA 9136.

Due to failure of the bidding, Socoteco 2 entered into a negotiated contract with Conal Holdings Corporation.  Actual negotiations for a power sales agreement however did not begin until 2011.

Conal Holdings started holding public scoping (Alabel and Maasim towns) and public hearings as early as 2008 when it started permitting process to build a 200-MW coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani.  In April 2009, it obtained an environmental compliance certificate from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).

Then in 2010, the power problem in Mindanao exploded well ahead of everyone’s expectation resulting into massive blackouts reaching 12 hours in a day.

Water levels in Lake Lanao, the run-of-river source of the six cascading hydroelectric plants of the Agus River complex went several centimeters below critical level due to a prolonged dry spell.  Some plants had to be shut down in order to prevent further damage to the already aging and antiquated plants, a couple of them built as early as 1960s.

The situation forced both Socoteco 2 and Conal Holdings to fast track negotiations.

Conal Holdings then entered into a memorandum of agreement for power supply with Socoteco 2 in March 9 and eventually signed a power sales agreement late in 2011.

The local governments of Polomolok (South Cotabato) and General Santos City however, including NGCP, filed their opposition to the power sales agreement on the grounds of lack of pubic consultations and questioning the juridical personality and financial capacity of Sarangani Energy Corporation to which Conal Holdings Corporation ceded its rights and obligations to pursue the latter’s contract with Socoteco 2.

Sarangani Energy Corporation is the implementing firm of the power plant project of Conal Holdings in Maasim.

Before that, in November 2010, Socoteco 2 signed a power sales agreement with the Aboitiz-owned Therma Marine Inc for a 14MW power supply as allocation to the cooperative from Napocor was already reduced to 72MW.  No opposition was registered viz-a-vis the PSA contract Socoteco 2 entered into with Therma Marine Inc even if the agreement eventually led to Socoteco paying from a low of P9 to a high of P13 per kwh of power supply from the said power producer.

In June 2012, the Energy Regulatory Commission approved the PSA between Sarangani Energy and Socoteco 2.

Sometime last year, Socoteco 2 again entered into a supplemental agreement with Therma Marine bringing to 30MW its total power supply purchase from the Aboitiz firm.

Two weeks ago, Socoteco 2 entered into a power supply and transfer agreement with A. Brown through its subsidiary Peakpower Energy.  The agreement was for the construction of a 20.9MW of bunker-fired power plant that will be built by Peakpower Energy, operated for 15 years and thereafter transferred to Socoteco 2.  It is pending approval from the ERC, however.

Click to read the third and final section.

The South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (Socoteco 2) has been implementing two 3½ hours of daily power outages in its franchise area ever since the National Power Corporation (Napocor or NPC) issued an advisory that only 46MW will be available for the electric cooperative during the summer.  Contracted supply for the whole year is now only 52MW.

The franchise area of Socoteco 2 covers General Santos, the whole of Sarangani and the towns of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato.

To say that power supply for Socoteco 2 has been erratic is an understatement.  It now goes from being somewhat problematic to outrageously critical.

With projected peaking demand of 123 megawatts (MW) for 2013, Socoteco 2 is Mindanao’s 3rd largest power consumer, next only to the cities of Davao (358 MW) and Cagayan de Oro (155 MW).

In a forum on the power situation in General Santos Wednesday, March 27, Socoteco 2 manager Rodolfo Ocat said they had to contract out additional 30MW from the soon-to-be-operational Mapalad Power Corporation to meet its current peaking demand of 112 MW.  It earlier entered into a supply contract with Therma Marine Inc for 30MW.  But until the full 30MW from Mapalad is delivered in August, residents in the Socoteco franchise area will have to live with the 7-hour daily rotational brownout.  It could extend to more than 8 hours as more big power consumers are expected to open up shop in the city in the second half of this year, among them the 111-room Green Leaf Hotel along San Miguel St. across SM City Gensan.  The Veranza Mall of KCC will likewise open by June.

But even if adequate power supply is available, consumers will have to shoulder the additional cost in a package called blended cost as more than half of the power source will then come from diesel-fired power plants – a complete reversal from 2012 when the contracted hydro power source was 70 per cent of Socoteco’s supply.

Actual costs from these new power sources (between P10-14/kwh) will bring the blended cost of electricity in General Santos to more than P8 per kilowatt hour (kwh),  still way below the rates in Luzon and Visayas but up from around P5/kwh in 2010.

According to the Napocor, Mindanao still has the lowest generation charge at an effective rate of P2.9693/kwh compared to Luzon (P5.6788) and Visayas (P4.5727).  The figures do not include transmission and distribution costs and systems loss in the actual electricity bill of consumers.

And even if Socoteco implements the interruptible load program (ILP), between now and the delivery of the Mapalad supply, consumers will still shoulder an additional P0.43/kwh.

The Department of Energy even warned that Mindanao residents will have to shoulder an average increase of about P3 per kilowatt hour in their electricity bills.

To put the large part of the blame to Socoteco 2’s failure to secure supply for the city’s ever growing demand for power would be grossly unfair.

Fact is, Socoteco 2 was rendered helpless by the vague and fuzzy allocation of whatever remaining available capacity in the island from Napocor and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

The NGCP is posting in its website a daily summary of available capacity in the system as well as peaking demand in Mindanao.  But it is not disclosing how much of capacity goes to the 32 electric cooperatives and 4 privately-owned distribution utilities in the Mindanao grid.

Mindanao's existing capacity mix

Napocor isn’t doing any better.  It even pulled down from its website data from its generating plants and the capacity these plants are producing.

In its website, the Department of Energy (DoE) said system demand in Mindanao in 2008 was 1,204 MW.  It increased to 1,303MW in 2009 but dropped in 2010 to 1,288MW.  It was supposed to be 1,346 MW in 2011.   If NGCP’s figure of 975MW systems peak demand on March 27 was accurate, where was the difference in the demand between 2011 and March 2013 sourced from since almost all of the available capacities in Mindanao still run through the NGCP transmission services?

It’s either somebody is stealing power somewhere or the island has grounded into a screeching backspin and regressed altogether.  But that is another story.

To read part 2 of this series, click here. 

A total of 139,613.34 metric tons of fish, a majority of them tuna, landed at the fish port complex here last year, up from 112,890.81 metric tons in 2011.

The biggest gainer was Market 1, where big yellowfin tuna land, which recorded a catch of 12,701.04 metric tons, a 5-year record since its last five-figure catch of 12,680.45 tons in 2008.  The figure represents a hefty 105 percent increase over the 5-year record low of 6,185.94 landings in 2011.

Also gaining was Market 2 with an increase of 48 percent in total landings.  A total of 48,455.43 tons were landed in Market 2, an increase of 15,708.84 tons over the 2011 landings of 32,746.59. A majority of the fish landing in the said market section are catches from medium size purse seine operators and municipal fishermen.  Aquaculture productions are likewise landed in the said section.

Market 3, where big tuna purse seine operators are landing their catch, also posted hefty 65 percent hike in total catch with a record of 15,024.08 tons last year over the 9,061.13 tons in 2011.

The only decliner in 2012 landings was Wharf 2, where frozen tuna from Manila, used as raw materials for the canning factories here, are landed.  Only 7,324.56 tons were landed at Wharf 2 compared to the 11,796.11 tons 2011.

Foreign tuna landings at Wharf 1, however, posted a slight increase, from 53,101.04 metric tons in 2011 to 56,108.23 last year.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director Asis Perez attributed the increase to ongoing management of tuna stocks and other fish species in the country’s fishing grounds.

BFAR Director Asis Perez sees co-relation between hike in Philippine tuna catch to conservation measures.

He recently said that 10 percent of the increase in tuna catch may be also attributed to the sardine fishing closure in the Zamboanga Peninsula, Sulu Sea and Basilan Straits.

 “We are looking at the scientific correlations of the closure to the 10% increase in local tuna catch and landings (also last year),” Perez said during the ceremonial lifting of the sardine fishing closure season in early this month.

The increase in total tuna landings also came a year after the two-year closure of two pockets of high seas in the Western and Central Pacific to tuna FAD fishing.

FADs (fish aggregating devices) are floating and anchored structures designed to attract small fishes where tuna of different sizes congregate.

The Philippines also complies with the 4-month annual ban on FAD fishing within its territorial waters beginning the month of July.

In March 2012, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) lifted the ban on FAD fishing in Pocket 1 High Seas, an area of about 590,000 square kilometers east of Indonesia and north of Papua New Guinea, exclusively for Philippine tuna catchers.

The ban has since been extended in December last year during the 9^th WCPFC meeting in Manila.

The Philippines is a member of WCPFC and signatory to various conservation measures adopted by the world’s largest tuna fishing regulatory commission.

The gates of Socoteco 2 were rattled by protesters Monday as power outages continue to worsen into the summer.  Memes, hashtags, hate pages and even simple Facebook status made them the convenient punching bags for men on the streets and many outraged social media users in the city.

However, blaming the cooperative for the outages is like shooting the messenger. The power crisis in Mindanao is not the making of electric cooperatives and private distribution firms.

It has everything to do with generation which is a function of government and governance.  That is of course a separate and very long story.  And quite the only story we should care to talk about.

Since power generation is a matter of government policy, it is better to address instead the misconception and misinformation about the alleged inefficiency and negligence of Socoteco 2.

Contrary to public perception, the cooperative has responded to the red alerts raised as early as 2007 by beginning to look for potential power supplies outside of the National Power Corporation (Napocor or NPC). 

It considered building its own standby diesel plant.  Socoteco 2, however, found the cost then too prohibitive and may not be immediately approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission. 

Instead, it announced a public bidding for the supply of base load capacity as early as 2009.  Unfortunately, there were only two bidders at the time which, under its charter and ERC rules, resulted in failed bidding. 

The bidders then were Agus 3 and Conal Holdings Corporation.  Both offered to supply base load capacity for indicative projects.  Agus 3 is an erstwhile hydroelectric power plant project of Napocor but was mothballed as it required inundating villages for the construction of a dam. 

A group of private investors is now pursuing the project which application was referred to Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).   PSALM manages all remaining generating assets of Napocor as mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) or RA 9136.

Due to failure of the bidding, Socoteco 2 entered into a negotiated contract with Conal Holdings Corporation.  Negotiations for a power sales agreement however did not begin until 2011.

Before that, in 2010, Mindanao was hit by prolonged dry spell, a situation that brought the water reservoir in Lake Lanao to critical levels.  As a result, 6 cascading run-of-river power plants of the Agus River hydroelectric complex had to be shut down or de-rated.  The de-rating also coincided with the sale of the Power Barges (117 and 118) moored in Mindanao as part of the privatization of Napocor, also under EPIRA.  The sale of these power barges to Therma Marine Inc. effectively took more than 200 MW from Napocor’s available capacities for distribution in the Mindanao grid.  The supply problem in Mindanao was further aggravated by the legal tussle between Napocor and the Iligan city government which seized the 110MW Iligan Diesel Power Plant (IDPP) over the former’s failure to pay real estate tax.  By the time the power crisis began to take its toll in 2010, the IDPP was no longer operational due to neglect.  Also adding to the problem was the de-rating of the Pulangi Hydroelectric Plant due to heavy siltation.  In the first quarter of 2010, when the Mindanao power shortage was at its worse, Pulangi was only delivering no more than 50MW from its total installed capacity of 220MW.

When the dry spell was over, Napocor was left with a little over 1000MW available to feed the 32 electric cooperatives and 4 private distribution firms (Davao Light, CEPALCO, COTELCO and ILPC) that have a combined peaking load requirement of close to 1,200MW.  As of March 26, however, the available capacity of the Mindanao grid is only 990MW.

In 2011, Napocor told Socoteco 2 that it can only supply 72 MW for the cooperative.  The Napocor supply was 34MW short of the 106MW peaking load then of Socoteco 2.  In July that year, Socoteco 2 entered into a power supply purchase with Therma Marine Inc for the supply of 14MW.

It was a welcome relief but it came with a stiff price.  Before Socoteco 2 entered into a supply contract with Therma Marine, the generation cost of electricity in General Santos was less than P3/kilowatt hour (excluding distribution charge). Following its contract with Therma Marine, bundled generation cost of Socoteco rose to more than P4/kilowatt hour as supply from the now Aboitiz-owned power barges was at P9-13/kilowatt hour. 

In late 2011, Socoteco 2 and Conal Holdings Corporation finally agreed to a supply/purchase deal for 70MW of base load supply.  The power sales agreement (PSA) between Socoteco 2 and Conal Holdings was approved by the ERC only last year, more than two years after they began negotiations due to opposition from the city government, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and environment groups.  Power supply from Conal Holdings, through its corporate subsidiary Sarangani Energy Corporation, won’t be available until the last quarter of 2015 or early of 2016, however.

In 2012, Socoteco 2 was further advised that it will only be drawing 56MW from Napocor.  Socoteco then increased its purchased power from Therma Marine.  But it also drove electricity costs to hover around P7/kilowatt hour as diesel-fired power supply from Therma Marine also meant increase in the aggregate cost mix.

This year, only 46MW will be available for Socoteco 2 even as it already maxed out possible supply from Therma Marine at 30MW.  Last week, A. Brown announced it will set up a 20MW bunker fuel power plant in General Santos as additional supply to Socoteco 2 whose current peaking load of 112MW is expected to grow annually by 4.3 percent.  Also last week, Mindanao Development Authority chair Lualhati Antonino announced that modular generating sets will be set up in General Santos City.

So if power supply for Socoteco 2 was already curtailed beginning 2011, why didn’t residents in General Santos experience prolonged brownouts?  Unbeknownst to many, Socoteco 2 gave priority to power supply for General Santos City by reducing allocation to nearby areas covered by its franchise.

But the situation could no longer be managed by switching off other areas to spare the city from outages. Now, the whole franchise area of Socoteco 2 will have to live with this reality, until help comes along.  It obviously did what it was limited to do under its mandate but fell short.

So where did Socoteco 2 fail?

Socoteco 2, like everybody directly involved in the power industry knew that supply was to reach critical level in 2009 when reserve capacity in Mindanao fell below the industry desired 13 percent of available capacity.  Industry sources then already knew the supply power problem in Mindanao will reach crisis by 2012.  The power crisis came ahead of projection, unfortunately.

In 2009, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce Industry, during the 9^th Mindanao Business conference in Koronadal City, warned that unless new capacities are built by 2015, Mindanao could suffer severe power shortage.

To everybody’s chagrin, the power crisis came well ahead of time.

And to make matters worse, no new capacities will go on commercial stream until the end of 2015.  By then, the supply and demand deficit will have widened even more.

This is where Socoteco 2 failed.  While it was busy scampering and looking for supply sources, it failed to adequately inform its consumers of the real situation.   

There was little information about the contract it entered with Therma Marine that by the time the bigger and more strategic supply agreement with Conal Holdings came into public scrutiny, Socoteco 2 was left defending a decision that it has no choice but to make – again – under the circumstances.

In addition, the public was kept in the dark about the power supply and transfer agreement (PSTA) it recently entered into with A. Brown Co, Inc through Peakpower Energy.  Peakpower Energy will build a 20.9 bunker-fired power plant in General Santos City.  The contract however still needs ERC approval.

Why is Socoteco 2 bearing the brunt of the power crisis hitting the city?

Communications failure aside, Socoteco 2 is unfortunate enough to be the most visible and convenient symbol of the government’s failed energy policies.  It didn’t help that the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulating Commission have no physical offices in the city where protests can be directly mounted.  The National Power Corporation also tore down its satellite office in Calumpang following the sale of the power barge to Therma Marine while NGCP holds office at its faraway Mabuhay sub-station.

And to correct another misconception, Socoteco 2 does not generate profit for its shareholders because it has none.  Its annual budget is subject to approval from ERC.  Its hands are virtually tied up and could not embark into a more strategic approach of addressing the supply issue of its franchise because, under the EPIRA law, its function is distribution – mainly.