It was nice to see President Aquino get annoyed. He is such a "Mr. Nice Guy" and so patient with the press and his advisors that it was actually reassuring to see him get mad about the lack of correct weather forecasting about typhoon "Basyang." Instead of skirting Manila, it hit dead center. And scary, too. Most of us, thinking it was only rain that night, went around on our appointments, only to wake to wild wind - and wondering if the roof would come off. And then the blackout hit. And the phone went dead (repairs that took from a day and a half to two and three days to fix).
When the newspapers finally appeared, there was one (not the Bulletin ) which had a story on the front page listing the casualties and the displaced, and in another section, a story about the storm that states were no casualties or serious damage.
Talk about "unprepared." Everyone apparently was unprepared, including the people whose job is to forecast the weather.
This was attributed variously to a "brain drain" (good forecasters have been hired abroad) and poor equipment. Obviously, as the President said, there is need for upgrading the system. At this start of the typhoon system, it is more urgent than infrastructure, or collecting back taxes.
It was also heartening to hear President Aquino's cool response to the dangerous idea of reactivating the moth-balled Bataan nuclear power plant. It's true that the Philippines needs other sources of indigenous energy to cut back on the expense of imported oil but the Bataan plant should not be considered. It was closed down for very sound safety reasons. It lies perilously close to an earthquake fault and near an inactive (for now) volcano.
The Philippines leads this region in the development of renewable energy sources. And it is second only to the United States in the development of geothermal power (steam from volcanic earth). Recently, the Philippines' largest geothermal energy producer, the Lopez-led Energy Development Corp., announced plans to invest over $1 billion in new geothermal plants within the next five years, which are expected to generate 230 megawatts of electricity. The Philippine Holdings Alterenergy division chaired by Vince Perez is developing three wind power projects in Laguna, Mindoro, and Rizal provinces.
The Department of Energy has not ruled out new nuclear plants and several sites are under review, as well as more solar energy, from the sun, now that the cost of solar has dropped below that of nuclear production. There are also plans afoot, according to Vince Perez, to develop more wind farms to add to the first commercial wind power facility in Ilocos Norte. For every additional megawatt of renewable energy produced, the Philippines saves on the cost of imported oil, as well as contributing to the fight against global warming.
