The intermittent, sometimes long
and agonizing brownouts in the town of Bauan bring back to memory the struggle
of Batangas City residents years back when it was still under a local
distributor known as BCELS. I was still a young journalist then when there was
an attempt to transfer the management of the power utility to a Cooperative
being spearheaded by then first-termer Mayor Eduardo Dimacuha. I was among
those opposed to the idea since many thought it was just another farce organization
prone to corruption and political pressure that will not solve the brownout
misery.
Dimacuha had a backing of then
Deputy Speaker of the House, Rep. Hernando “Nani” Perez.
It even came to a
point when Meralco was the popular choice and National Power Corporation’s
District Manager Rudy Corrado somehow earned the ire of Perez for not
supporting the Cooperative idea. Corrado, a lowly district manager, was
lambasted by Perez who asked for his head in front of President Corazon Aquino.
It must have been so important an issue that an official of Nani’s status would
bring it up to the highest level.
The rest is history since due to
intense public demand, the electricity services fell into the able hands of
Meralco.
For Bauan, the case was
different. When the Dolors have become the undisputed lords of Bauan, they sold
the utility called Bauan Electric Light System (BELS) to First Bay Power
Corporation, some claiming despite the lack of public hearings or transparency
on what were really involved or who benefitted from the transaction. But since
First Bay needed a Congressional franchise, a Dolor nephew-in-Law, Deputy
Speaker Raneo “Ranie” Abu sponsored the fast House approval of the franchise (although
he was not yet Deputy Speaker at the time, if I am not mistaken).
So both Deputy Speakers taking
much interest in the electricity service in their areas is really a saga of its
own. But I must admit that Nani Perez’s deputy speakership is much more
glamorous because in his time, there were only 3 of them, unlike now with Abu
who is one among 14 deputy speakers. 
