Breaktime: Power behind the flown

Amid the current mess in the power industry, caused by the big increase in electricity rates charged by Meralco, an industry player has been praised by the Department of Energy.

It is the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), a joint venture between the SM group of taipan Henry Sy and the State Grid Corp. of China, which took over the power transmission lines of the government some five years ago.

It turned out that, even before the Aquino (Part II) created Task Force Yolanda in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by the supertyphoon, NGCP already activated its quick response team. And from what we gathered, the team members even spent the holidays away from home, working 24/7 in critical areas in the Visayas to restore the power supply.

The NGCP quick response team, headed by Gil Listano from the operations and maintenance department, reportedly was among the first corporate contingents to hit ground zero.

As we all know, the typhoon toppled stretches of power transmission lines in the Visayas, plunging the whole region in darkness for several days.

NGCP immediately fielded teams from its operations and maintenance department, backed by its aviation department. The company needed to airlift personnel from southern Luzon to augment its manpower in the Visayas.

The aviation department at first used helicopters to conduct aerial inspection of the damage and haul huge transmission tower parts to remote sites.

In just one week, the Listano team flown by helicopter to inaccessible areas was able to restore power in areas around Ormoc City in Leyte, thus reconnecting the province to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.

The team actually had a ready plan, called “emergency restoration system structures,” which it put into motion after the typhoon to restore power in six major “backbone” lines in the Visayas—all serving the islands of Leyte and Samar.

According to Listano, who recently recounted the emergency operation during the fifth anniversary celebration of NGCP, the immediate restoration of power in one transmission line boosted the confidence of the quick response team. He said that “it provided hope to everyone that, despite the daunting tasks ahead, the job could be done.”

The top management of NGCP, led by its president and CEO Henry Sy Jr. and chief technical officer Wen Bo, paid tribute to the quick response team during the simple anniversary celebration at its head office in Quezon City two weeks ago.

Moreover, Wen Bo, who also sits on the board, disclosed that NGCP had drawn up plans to set up a grid to interconnect countries in Southeast Asia, calling it the “super Asian grid,” in anticipation of the Asean integration in 2015.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, the guest of honor in the celebration, noted the need for the Philippines to prepare for the Asean integration. He said that with five tough years of operations behind it, the NGCP by now should be a “veteran,” ready to face any obstacle in the future.

Well, NGCP already proved itself in the aftermath of Yolanda.

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In the mountainous Cordillera region, in a remote barangay called Balatoc in Pasil, Kalinga, indigenous people—the Balatoc tribe—are trying to ward off two corporations from exploiting their barangay in a mining venture.

The two companies called themselves Carrascal Nickel Corp. (CNC), and its subsidiary, CNC-Faratuk Mining Inc.

Now, the Balatocs obtained the right of ancestral domain in the area. It should have been obvious to anybody, because the barangay even took the name of the tribe.

But the two mining companies did not seem to recognize the right of the Balatocs. Without much ado, thank you, their field workers proceeded to drill in areas believed to contain deposits of copper, gold and silver.

Here is something more interesting: The prospectors even obtained the backing of the Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC), a government-owned company, mandated 10 years ago under the cute administration of Gloriaetta to resolve conflicts in the Diwalwal mines in Compostela Valley.

Today, PMDC has also taken on the mandate of “revitalizing the Philippine mining industry,” as its website states, becoming the “catalyst for developing mining projects in areas where private investors find it difficult to come in.” Hmmm.

Now is “prospecting” already “mining?”

It is, according to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), a quasijudicial body under the Office of President, which noted that prospecting or mineral exploration is covered by the legal definition of mining in the law applicable to the tribe’s complaint, referring to the case the Balatocs filed with the commission against the two companies.

The NCIP hearing officer handling the case, Guillermo Kadatar, ruled that the Balatoc tribe was entitled to the protection of its rights over their ancestral domain. The commission also issued a restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction against the mining companies for what it termed as “illegal mining operations.”

It turned out that the two companies started all sorts of activities in the area without the consent of the indigenous peoples, arguing that such prior consent was unnecessary. But the NCIP ruled otherwise, citing the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.