Archive for category Current Events

I WAS about to take my exam last Saturday at Mindanao State University but it was cancelled due to a sudden power outage. A week before that, several brownouts caused the delay in the submission of our reports on student performance. It doesn’t end with that. There are bigger problems, too, like your cellphone and laptop going empty and you couldn’t connect to your plurk buddies anymore. Seriously, the greater problem is, are we facing power shortage already?

In November last year, Archimedes Flores, general manager of Aboitiz Energy Solutions presented a briefing paper to the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce that projects  an 84 MegaWatt shortage next year and 174 MegaWatt shortage by 2011. (Source: GMA News)

On the daily basis, the SocSKSarGen area requires about 150 MW of electricity and this is expected to increase by about 150 MW when the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) begins its operation in 2011. At present, the are is sourcing its electricity from NAPOCOR and from two diesel power plants located in General Santos City and Alabel, Sarangani Province. The two power plants produce electricity at only 104 MW. (Source: Edwin Espejo)

The continuous development in the area, such as the rise of new establishments, also increases the power requirement. Now, how are these problems being addressed? For sure, as most activities that people do today involve electricity, we could not afford to deal with brownouts everyday.

CONAL Holdings proposes an answer to this with its plan to build a 200-MW coal based power plant in Kamanga Maasim, Sarangani Province. CONAL Holdings is a venture between the Electricity Generating Public Company Limited (Thailand) and the Alacanta Group, which also operates the Southern Philippine Power Corporation and Alsons Aqua Resources Company in Sarangani Province. (Source: Industrial Info)

Although, Kamanga Power Plant General Manager, Gregorio S. Gonzales, claims that the company will employ technologies that are compliant to Philippines Laws that protect the environment, the people cannot be blamed if they would rise up against it as it still pose danger to Massim, nearby towns Kiamba and Maitum, and even the city of General Santos.

The major drawbacks of coal-fired power plants include emissions of greenhouse gases that are said to contribute to global warming, inroganic aerosols that can damage the ozone layer, and fly ash that can pollute the air and water systems. (Sources: GSA, ORNL, Wikipedia)

Now it is a question of how much are we willing to put at risk for the sake of development?

Public Hearing on the proposed Coal-Fired Power Plant in Maasim, Sarangani Province (Photo by Cocoy Sexcion)

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I THOUGHT we were to witness a historic event when we were invited to the unfurling of the largest flag of the Philippines at the Sarangani Provincial Capitol Complex this morning. To my dismay, what we witnessed instead was a large-scale disrespect to the nation’s emblem. Or so I thought. Just yesterday, the students and teachers of our school were advised to proceed to the capitol grounds for the unfurling of the largest Philippine flag. So we all went there this morning.

Lying on the ground was a huge lump of wet cloth spanning the length of the lawn in front of the capitol building. (That is roughly 200 meters long, I estimate.) The colors of the cloth were familiar so I recognized right away that it was the flag that was to be unfurled. White, golden yellow, red, blue, brown, and gray. Brown and gray? Does the Philippine flag have brown and gray in it? Something was very wrong about it. (Thanks to Joanna for this photo)

I grew up with a sense of respect to the flag. During my grade school days, when we were tasked to hoist the national color, we would always see to it that we handle it with care and that it would always be flown with the blue color on top, not red. During flag retreats, we would fold it without allowing it to touch the ground. I also learned that we should not raise the flag anymore when its colors have faded or when it already looks weathered. (The Flag Law)

I looked at the large piece of cloth on the ground again. It looked like a huge mess to me. So I decided, it wasn’t the Philippine flag at all but rather, just a huge cloth that looked like the Philippine flag.

Students, government employees, and men in uniform drag the edges of the flag

Why would you create such a huge flag if you don’t know how to treat it well? If you really value the national flag, why would you allow it to just lie on the ground overnight and be drenched by the rain? (It is just made of cloth, for God’s sake! Sun and rain can make it vulnerable.) And if it is sacred to you, why would you allow it to be trampled upon? On second thought, doesn’t that huge flag depict our country today, disrespected and broken apart?

Gov. Migs Dominguez and representatives from various sectors mend the flag as it needed stiching from previous unfurling.

The Woman Behind the Huge Flag

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