Power firm to invest in energy projects in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A private power firm is keen on energizing far-flung areas in the strife-torn Sulu province and nearby island towns in Tawi-Tawi.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the Regional Board of Investments in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), on Thursday said the prospective power provider, the Kaltimex Rural Energy Corporation, is attached to a foreign firm providing electricity to off-grid Indonesian islands.

The Kaltimex will invest P400 million for a power barge facility that can supply electricity to certain areas in Tawi-Tawi, covering 11 towns, some located at the country’s sea border with Malaysia.

The Kaltimex had forged a power purchase agreement with the Tawi-Tawi Electric Cooperative, according to Mastura.

Kaltimex is also reportedly negotiating now for a similar joint power-generation tie-up with the Sulu Electric Cooperative.

Sulu, touted as the country’s most dangerous province, has 19 towns, more than half of them without electricity.

Besides being poor and underdeveloped, Sulu is also known as hotbed of Islamic militancy and a harboring site for captives of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf group, feared for its practice of decapitating Filipino and foreign captives if ransom demands are not met.

Sources from the ARMM’s business community are confident the electrification of isolated Sulu towns will foster peace in the island province and generate business opportunities needed to boost the local economy and provide employment for jobless folks.

“This is for us something so providential. Our target is to improve the situation in the island provinces of ARMM to generate economic activities that can provide people there with jobs. This is something we can’t achieve without electricity in those areas,” Mastura said.

Mastura said the Kaltimex venture into the autonomous region will complement the efforts of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman to hasten the socio-economic growth of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi through governance, infrastructure and education interventions.

The Hataman administration and the SMC Global Power Corporation agreed last week to cooperate in joint energy projects needed to improve the ARMM’s fledgling economy.

Hataman and the Global Power’s executive officer, Ramon Ang, signed last week in Metro Manila an agreement detailing bilateral cooperation in addressing the power needs in all of the region’s five provinces and two component cities.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan.

The Global Power is engaged in generation of electricity using coal, natural gas and hydroelectric plants. The firm operates as a subsidiary of the San Miguel Corporation.

While there has been a dramatic increase in investments in the autonomous region in the past three years, many domestic viable investment sites still lack electricity needed to sustain industries.