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Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to everyone!

There is great reason to be electrified with joy in the Philippines over the electrification of the islands. For sooner or later, way before 2010 is over, no more town or village shall ever remain darkened by the eons-old absence of electricity. Power development will then move on to its more ambitious tasks, including electrifying the powerless zones of other countries.

As a little boy then who grew up in the entrepot town of Tuguegarao, I knew what it is to have zero electricity. Power generation was weak in the 1960s to mid-70s, and at times power was available only once every three (3) days. I had to use ‘candle power’ to light my way to academic success, but at the cost of ending up in high school with an uncorrectable near-sighted vision and missing out on the military academy that required perfect eye vision for entry.

With my eyes damaged by the weak power generation, I was “compelled” instead to study in the premier state university. After finishing my sociology degree, with some background in industrial engineering, I vowed to plunge my hands in my own boyhood region’s development, vowed “rage against the dying of the light” by coercing stakeholders, where necessary, to electrify the area, or else…

My agency of choice, the Ministry of Human Settlements or MHS, was so powerful we technical staff and execs practically sat and imprinted our hands in all of the interagency committees in any area, down to the grassroots.  Cagayan then had the luck of prioritizing electrification, via the CIADP (Cagayan Integrated Area Development Project) that was directly under the country’s president, and so my task of monitoring and seeing to it that the set targets were done on electrification and other goals (irrigation, infrastructures) will be achieved as much as possible. Where bottlenecks will surface, my agency will refer the matter upstairs to quicken the resolution of the gridlocks. By dint of this arrangement, as convenor of the provincial development council here I had a real good chance of “coercing” (well, influencing is better) stakeholders to do their job well.

In Batanes, where I dipped my hands in 1981-82, there was already an advanced plan to electrify Batan and Sabtang islands via the National Electrification Administration’s intervention. Batanes had zero electricity then, save for Basco the provincial hub that was powered by a generator. My task here was more of listening to the local planners and implementers, report the same to my bosses, and to input the progress as a planning item for the forthcoming livelihood program KKK (knowing when power comes allowed us to project what enterprises to plan and support, since refrigeration will be made possible in due time there, thus enabling food preservation).  

Those were the days, my friends. Today the national landscape is one where close to 97% of villages are lighted. Grid interface technology had already been perfected and attained ‘over-developed’ status, permitting our experts to help not only ourselves but even the USA perfect its current overflow problems in the east coast. In villages that cannot access to the main grids, hybrid technologies are the option tracks such as solar power. Our engineers design and mass manufacture solar panels right here, just to remind you.

Another source of our joy is the fact that our power sector is one of the most dynamic in the Philippines and in East Asia as a whole. Thanks at least to the brilliance of the development planners and managers in the sector, it had surged way ahead. The challenge for the sector, in light of possible global crisis over oil supply bottlenecks and problems, is to fast-track alternatives to petrol. RP’s dependence on oil is actually down to a mere ¼ of its supply, and is still going down.

But the technological revolutions here aren’t over yet. Solar, geothermal, and wind power are now in their advanced prototype mass production and implementation phases. Meanwhile, ocean power is  silently being researched on. While ocean power R&D goes on, biofuels are being mass produced though this energy source is highly politicized and contentious. Biofuel is only a stop-gap, and by 2020 the nation may be on the road to geothermal, wind and ocean power as the chief sources of electricity.

There we go, partners. RP’s power generation, grid interphase leading the way more so, is way high above the clouds. Without doubt the energy sector here deserves accolades. Cheers to RP’s electrification!  

Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Writ 12 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former community development assistant at the Ministry of Human Settlements, Region II, in early 1981.]

If Bob Marley were alive today and visited Mayoyao in Ifugao, Cordillera region, he might achieve euphoria even without having to smoke pot. And his cause for Dionysiac wonderment would be: a fishpond atop a mountain. And he’d declare wide-eyed, with nary a 2^nd thought, that “the Ifugaos are a free people! Hail Ifugaos!”

Free indeed is this sturdy ethnicity of highlanders, who used to be ferocious head-hunters and were dreaded by the Americans. They have since become tame, no longer do head-hunting, and have instead hunted for tons of bright ideas to multiply their survival chances up in the boondocks.

I was then a newly hired program staff for the Ministry of Human Settlements’ Regional Liaison Office in Region II or RLO-2. We covered the whole of Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao. As soon as I had a couple of days of briefing as a new staff, I immediately buzzed off for field work to monitor our community services at the town levels where we have deployed community organizers who were dubbed the HSOs (Human Settlements Officers).

Over 250 kilometeres south of Tuguegarao, the location of our liaison office (we were an adjunct of the central office in the region), was Ifugao which had to be traversed via Nueva Vizcaya. Armed with my monitoring sheets, itinerary, cassette recorder with The Police and Sex Pistols playing, and an escort of truly-armed Philippine Constabulary (our regional supervisor was Gen. Olivas of PC Region II), I visited couples of HSOs in Vizcaya for a day first, after which I proceeded to Mayoyao.

Well, the road to Ifugao was narrow, winding and gravel-rough, and only single-lane. And down below was crevice, hard rock, or some cursed dangerous vertical wall that King Kong would hate to scale. And my balls (excuse me) quickly moved from down loin up to past my head, as the goose bumps overwhelmed my being till we reached Mayoyao 40 kilometers from Banawe.

The recompense for the rough and hazardous ride was the beautiful scenery, so grand and beautiful beyond words. The best-looking rice terraces are found here, not in Banawe that is merely the entry point. And, without doubt, the fish pond built atop a mountain whose peak was leveled for the purpose.  

How many places on Earth could one find fishponds that are not only impossible to build but also costly? And this one was built from concrete. Rectangular in shape, around it was classy cobble-like stone and cement aisle. Below is the pond, around two (2) meters deep, with the fingerlings just seeded. Covering around one (1) hectare in size or so, it was actually more of an experimental prototype, though the town residents thought of producing at commercial levels. Tilapia was the experimental species, to recall.

The Cordillerans are truly a wonderful people in terms of innovativeness in thriving. They’ve already chiseled out the mountains into productive rice lands. Now they followed through with fish farming, and of all places, atop a mountain.

The project, installed by cooperating agencies (mayor’s office, MHS, Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources or BFAR), was a success for the duration of my stay then in the MHS (I stayed till 1983). And there were no reputable enterprise financing programs for these types then. They funded it themselves, via local funds and private donors.

So for those who are interested to know the success story, please visit Mayoyao in Ifugao. Enjoy the ride up there. For relaxation, you can choose between bottles of gin or local rice wine (tapoy). And better quaff them, because whether hot or cold days, it is always cold up there. Ride the wave of the moment!