ZAMBOANGA: CITY OF FLOWERS, ASIA'S LATIN CITY OR BLACKOUT CAPITAL OF THE PHILIPPINES?

April 2019, we have experienced a crisis first hand that our fellow Zamboanguenos are facing every day-BLACKOUT! I have been coming back and forth whenever I have the time to “mi ciudad de Zamboanga” and every day is a happy day except when there is prolonged blackout plus water shortages.

My City is known for a number of things, white sand, instagram worthy beaches, religious and hospitable people, great food, rich Culture but now it is getting popular due to blackouts and is being dubbed as the blackout capital of the Philippines as posted on social media.

As a mom of two, my primary concern is how my children will be able to sleep as even if this is a province electricity is vital as we need it to be able to live comfortably. During the day it is somehow tolerable as we would usually go to KCC mall and stroll instead but at night the dilemna of wanting to just simply book a hotel just to be able to sleep comfortably is our only solution. But what if this happens so often? It got me thinking that as a blogger who lives in that location I have to do some thing and raise awareness in my own way. I can’t just rely on the government as I have to do my fair share.

Here’s what I got from reserching and talking to people:

For almost 3 months now since February 2019, we Zamboanguenos have been experiencing prolonged blackouts. This is because CROWN has forced ZAMCELCO not to pay WMPC thus leading to the shutdown of WMPC’s 100-megawatt diesel powerplant in Sangali Zamboanga City due to a dwindling supply of fuel.

When IMC was awarded last year to Crown Investments, we breathed a sigh of relief as we will finally have a solution to our problems with power. Crown promised ti invest 2.5 billion pesos in ZAMCELCO to pay off its outstanding debts to power suppliers and also upgrade its facilities to reduce its systems loss and avoid further power interruptions.

Less than a month after CROWN took over ZAMCELCO’s management IN 2017, WMPC was forced to shut down and we experienced rotational blackouts which continue up to now.

WMPC stated in an open letter that ZAMCELCO has not paid for power supplied by the WMPC from October 2018 to January 2019 amounting to over 400 million pesos.

After reading all these Information online i felt that we as consumers should not be suffering from all of these things should there be Simeon willing to step up and end this. I can still remember the difficulty I was experiencing during the ber months when it was much cooler but the heat now since it’s summer is different and can’t be tolerated. When i was serving these types of posts from friends in my home town while I was in Manila, I was thinking maybe they were over reacting or maybe they were being exaggerated. But when I experienced it first hand I realized that they had every right to rant as this is a situation we want to out an end to. Business owners needing to open late or early because of power interruptions, moms finding ways to keep their babies comfortable and children looking after their parents to not suffer from heat stroke or any other ailments or condotions brought about by power interruptions.

If it’s not blackout, it would be no water or even both. Good for those who has generators but I can tell you that only 1 out of many has generator in this City.

I’ve read as well that CROWN and ZAMCELCO ignored the demand letters sent by WMPC in January and February of this year and gave no explanation for the non payment. WMPC is responsible for supplying the bulk of power in Zamboanga City as well as having crucial role of stabilizing the power grid in Zamboanga City being the only power plant operating  within Zamboanga City.

Because the WMPC plant stopped operating not only in Zamboanga deprived of a huge part of its power supply, the power grid in Zamboanga also became unstable as it needs WMPC to operate in order to prevent fluctuations in voltage which also causes blackouts.

So what is the solution to this crisis?

To end the blackouts WMPC has to have the fuel to operate and that wont happen untill CROWN is able to make sure that ZAMCELCO pays WMPC.

In the meantime, the people of ZAMBOANGA City is suffering from the refusal of CROWN to pay WMPC in order for the WMPC plant to obtain fuel and begin operating to supply power to ZAMBOANGA and stabilize the grid.

As someone who is constantly in Zamboanga City, my hope is for who ever will have the office in our government to out a stop to this crisis and think of the common good. Coz after all, we do not wanna be known as the black out capital of the Philippines.