Days and nights of our lives
By Noralyn Mustafa

IT wasn't just the outrageous attire, though by itself that was bad enough. Nor was it the fact that the provincial government had to move the opening of the celebrations of Sulu's 613th anniversary of local governance to the 22nd of September-four days after the official date, while all the other activities which could not be deferred had to go on, ahead of the actual opening-because that was the only date in her crowded calendar that the guest of honor, President Macapagal-Arroyo, could visit Jolo for the occasion.

And when she arrived to a welcoming throng dressed up in their festival best worthy of the presence of the President of the Republic, President Macapagal -- what fashion sense after that impeccable wardrobe on her latest trip abroad -- came garbed in a "mongrelized" (one is hard put to find the right word to describe it) version of the Tausug dress.

The Tausugs are very proud of their traditional dress and respect their conventions: the color combinations, the number of gold buttons, the designs of the lapels, etc.

And here was the President in colorless pants and shirt (with rolled-up sleeves) with matching running shoes, which was bad enough amid all the silk and glitter. But adding insult to injury, she topped it all -- like fondant icing over cassava cake -- with a beautiful habul tiyahi-an (hand-embroidered patadyong). It made even an ardent fan like me wish for the days of Madame Imelda Marcos, who at least knew what to wear where and when.

But the above is a digression.

What the majority of residents here felt most disappointing in the President's visit -- her second, by the way, not the first as reported in the media -- was not what she did, but what she didn't.

She did not mention anything about their biggest problem, the incredibly high electric rates and very poor power service.

At 10.04/per kilowatt-hour as of June this year, the rates are probably the highest in the country. For close to three months now, we don't have power for at least 10 hours in a day due to repairs on the generators. Before that, there were the unannounced, unexpected 2-5 hour daily brownouts.

And when there is no power, everything else shuts down, too. Television, radio stations, hospital equipment, communication facilities, etc.; worst of all, the water pumps.

I failed to submit my column the last time because we did not have electricity for 24 hours. Both my computers are in the shop for repair because they simply could not cope with the frequent fluctuations and outages. Believe it or not, I am typing this on an electric typewriter using batteries because there's no electricity right now.

But that is not all, what has made the situation desperate is the PPA or power purchase adjustment which grew from 25 percent in March 2001 to 132 percent as of June 2003.

The numerous letters and several trips to Manila of Jolo Vice Mayor Delma Ynawat to bring the matter to the attention of concerned agencies seem to have led nowhere. Mayor Hadji Suod Tan convened a meeting, which was attended by the military commander, heads of provincial and national offices, representatives of various sectors and a cross-section of the community, where it was decided to file, through the mayor, a case in court to have the matter settled.

Three days later, Mayor Tan filed a special civil action for injunction and prohibition with preliminary injunction with the regional trial court, as a result of which acting presiding Judge Abdua Jula issued a temporary restraining order to the electric cooperative and local arm of National Power Corporation (Napocor) to stop collecting the PPA.

What an immense relief it was for the consumers to find the PPA, which they considered "unjust and unreasonable" gone from their electric bills.

But alas, the TRO was good for only two billing months, July and August. Worse, when the consumers got their September billing, they found to their dismay that the PPA charges for the two months under TRO were all tucked into the bill!

For a province that is ranked among the three poorest in the country, such high costs of power is a burden that is, for many, almost impossible to bear.

At this point, it seems no relief is in sight. In their desperation, many had believed that only the President herself could free them from this misery.

The President did announce the package of goodies that she usually promises in her provincial sorties, but what we were dying to hear was for her to say that she had ordered the PPA charges abolished because there was nothing to justify it; that she had directed Napocor to send us an additional power barge so that we could have more power supply and start living normal lives with 24-hour electricity.

But she never did.

Or maybe she was going to, but she was stopped when the mike went dead, because of a sudden power outage. Sayang.

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