DAVAO CITY—Malacañang is taking a cautious approach to the right-of-way (ROW) issues affecting electric-transmission lines across several Mindanao provinces.
The bombing of power pylons and the deliberate growing of trees under high-tension wires point at an ominous scenario if hard solutions are pushed head-on.
President Aquino has assured Mindanao leaders that his administration is taking the steps, as he disclosed for the first time that the problem with landowners seeking millions of pesos for rent or “disturbance” payment for the use of their lands may date back to the arrangement the martial-law administration in the 1970s forged with the landowners.
On the first week of February, Malacañang ordered an interagency task force created to study applicable and acceptable solution, as landowners took a serious threat to their demand, although government would not immediately link them to the armed men who bombed four power pylons in Lanao de Sur, Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato between October and December last year.
The task force was headed by the Department of Energy. It gathered all government agencies and private groups with important function on energy and economic development for Mindanao, including the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, Mindanao Power Monitoring Commission, Mindanao Electric Power Alliance and the Mindanao Business Council.
Even as President Aquino bared that the problem dated as far back as the 1970s, Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monzada belied, however, that there was any regular payment done at that time.
“None that I know of,” she told reporters immediately after the first meeting of the task force on February 4.
She also asked the other members of the task force, including former officers of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), the agency that once assumed all transactions and negotiations involving power generation and transmission. None of them also heard or have knowledge of any such arrangement.
The question arose after a leading Mindanao business leader expressed apprehension that such arrangement may have happened and was stopped by the succeeding agencies. This may have even angered the landowners, the business leader said.
It was not arguable anymore that the landowners must be compensated for the use of their lands, but the task force would not concede to the amount demanded.
“There’s the case of a landowner where actual valuation of the land was only P1.3 million, but the landowner has claimed P330 million,” said Cynthia Alabanza, a lawyer and spokesman of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.
Generoso Senal, president and CEO of the government-ran National Transmission Corp., said the government has transmitted to the courts 216 cases of demand for money from the landowners.
“We have no recourse by now than to let the courts decide on the actual valuation of the properties,” he said. He told the BusinessMirror that the total amount demanded by landowners in the 216 cases might easily run to several billions of pesos.
However, the courts have also required the government to post the mandatory 10 percent of the likely total amount for renumeration or compensation. Senal said the government has deposited P195 million.
“The actual amount for compensation would be determined later by the courts,” he said.
He assured the landowners that the money would be available, but “we have to course the request through the Energy Regulatory Commission, which would ask the NGCP to proceed with the payment.”
“The NGCP would pass this on to the consumers for whatever amount would be paid to these landowners,” Senal warned.
While there have been individual payments already made in the last two years, Alabanza said none has been reflected yet in the electric billing of consumers.
Although the problem areas were concentrated in the Lanao and North Cotabato due to the bombing of the power pylons, the NGCP said the problem areas are spread all over.
In a gathering last year of energy agencies, electric cooperatives and distribution utilities, consumers and business leaders, the NGCP said ROW problems are obtaining in the towns of Sirawai, Marangan and Vitali of Zamboanga Sibugay province; in Zamboanga City; in the towns of Maramag, Kibawe, Kalilangan, Don Carlos, Malaybalay City and Valencia City of Bukidnon province; in the towns of Carmen, Arakan and President Roxas of North Cotabato province.
These are also found in Isulan town of Sultan Kudarat province, in the towns of Ampatuan, Shariff Aguak, Datu Unsay, Guindolongan, Tabayan, Talayan and Datu Odin Sinsuat of Maguindanao province, in the towns of Prosperidad, San Francisco, Bunawan and Cabadbaran City of Agusan del Sur province, in the towns of Jabonga and Sibagat in Agusan del Norte province, and in Cagwait, Surigao del Sur province.
The more problematic are the recent attacks in 18 towers at the start of the year.
“The latest incidents involving towers No. 19, 20, 21, 13, 25 and 50 of the Agus 2-Kibawe 138 kV [kilovoltage] transmission lines. Transmission tower No. 4 of the Baloi-Agus 2 138 kV transmission lines and the transmission tower No. 63 of Kabacan-Sultan Kudarat 138 kV transmission lines also experienced security attacks,” said the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), shortly before the first meeting on February 4 of the task force.
The recent attacks on towers No. 20 and 25 “created a dent in the power supply of Mindanao, which isolated the Agus 1 and 2 hydropower plants that produce about 260 megawatts (MW),” said Secretary Luwalhati Antonino, chairman of the MinDA.
“To date, the two towers have not yet been repaired due to issues of land ownership. The isolation of the hydropower plants has also caused rotational power interruption in different franchise areas in Mindanao. In addition to the attacks, issues on the ROWs and the hesitance of the land owners to cooperate are seen to further aggravate the problem,” she added.
The MinDA said five lines remain “out of operation due to the unwillingness of landowners to cooperate and the growing vegetation under the lines”. It identified them as those of the Baloi-Agus 2 138 kV lines 1 and 2; the Baloi-Agus 6 69 kV line; and the Kibawe-Agus 2 138 kV lines 1 and 2.
The MinDA said it has not linked any of the attacks to any landowner but top-ranking military and police officials have began to lay out the security net in and around the flash point of attacks. The police said it was building up the cases and profiling of the suspects in the attacks.
Energy Sec. Monzada assured that government is open for out-of-court settlement with landowners on matters of the amount demanded.
“We don’t want to appear as hard, neither would we allow the situation to turn out violent,” she said. “That’s why the meeting of the task force was to find the long-term solution. The President has also directed us to report to him on a weekly basis and update him time to time.”
Antonino said that “although Mindanao is currently enjoying a steady supply of power for the first time in about 10 years, the prevailing issues affecting the transmission towers in Mindanao could hamper this positive supply outlook.”
“We must immediately address issues on ROW and easements to further prevent unwarranted power disruptions and ensure the steady supply of power in the grid,” she said, adding that “the local government units together with the land owners must be willing to cooperate in resolving these issues and in guaranteeing the protection of the transmission towers.”
“The hesitance of the landowners to cooperate in solving the problem is also becoming a serious drawback as NGCP’s personnel cannot enter the area of the damaged towers or lines,” Antonino said.
She said transmission problems have dire consequences in Mindanao like isolating power plants from the grid, rotational and island-wide brownouts, and hampering operations of various industries.
Aside from updates on the repair of the transmission lines and towers, the principals’ meeting will also discuss mitigation measures, ways forward, immediate solutions, and other initiatives.
She said the energy officials would also discuss other issues “revolving around the power sector of Mindanao like the contracting of distribution utilities, updates of incoming power projects, the impacts of El Niño to the grid, and the rehabilitation of the Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants, among others.”
“The government is doing as much as it can to solve these problems but we also urge the public to help us in our efforts in addressing these by being more vigilant and by reporting suspicious activities in critical areas,” she added.
The NGCP said the vegetation issue, or the growing of trees underneath the high-tension lines, would threaten with “outage of the hydroelectric plants along the Agus River that further increases the generation deficiency in Mindanao which can be translated into several hours of rotating brownouts.”
“Voltage and system frequency dips resulting from short circuit as a tree branch touches the conductors affect the industrial customers severely,” it said.
In last year meeting, a lawyer for a group of landowner-claimants has also expressed the hesitance of his clients “because of the very low compensation offered by NGCP.”
Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, Monzada would hope that there is a resolution coming soon.