TVIRD provides electricity to remote Subanon village
Ronnie Guinagag and his family had to contend with using gas lamps to light their small home in Solonsangan, part of Canatuan in Siocon town, Zamboanga del Norte. Like in many remote rural upland villages in the Philippines, Solonsangan had no electricity. Denied of this basic service for generations, Subanon indigenous people like the Guinagags never stopped hoping that one day they will have at least electric light bulbs to light their homes, if only to enable the two small children in the family to study their lessons well at night. The gas lamps were simply unsafe and useless on windy nights.
Just recently, the Guinagags’ saw the realization of their dream. Personnel from TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD), the copper-zinc mining firm that the Subanons are hosting in Canatuan, installed a diesel-powered generator set in Solonsangan to fulfill the company’s commitment to provide electricity to the community.
“Finally we have electricity at home,” says a smiling Ronnie. “Now my children can do their school homework comfortably. This is indeed a great relief for us!”
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Above, Ronnie and Gina Guinagag and below, the portion of Solonsangan that for the first time gained access electricity. “This is indeed a great relief for us!”
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His wife, Gina, is equally elated: “The lighting that we have now is much better and safer than the gas lamps we used before. I no longer fear that our house might get burned down while we are all asleep. And we can now buy a transistor radio so we can listen to music and to the news that are broadcast from the Siocon town proper.”
Margarita Dandana, a young mother from the same community, is ecstatic: “Now I can do many things that I could not when we didn’t have electricity,” she says.
“We are lucky that Solonsangan is part of the TVIRD’s host community,” Ronnie adds. “Otherwise it would have taken ages before we get electricity.”
Khiem Ortuyo, an engineer from the company’s Mobile and Electrical Department relates how his unit brought electricity to Solonsangan: “Pre-fabricated G.I. pipe electric poles about 15-feet long were erected in the area. Then TVIRD’s Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO) acquired a generator set and brought it here. Now Ronnie and his neighbors have electricity.” Ortulyo says more than 30 electrical poles were erected so Solonsangan will have electricity.
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Margarita Dandana with daughter Kia Mae. “Now I can do many things that I could not when we didn’t have electricity,” Margarita says.
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But the electrification project for the community didn’t come all free for the residents, according to CReDO Superintendent Jose Dagala. “Those who wanted to avail themselves of the electricity were required to buy drop wires that will enable them to connect from the source to their houses. They also had to buy circuit breakers, convenience outlets, and lighting outlets, all of which cost them only 600 pesos (about US $13). And, of course, they had to buy their own light bulbs or fluorescent lamps.”
“These materials represent the Solonsangan residents’ counterpart contribution to the project,” says Engr. Fred Gonzaga, manager of the Mobile and Electrical Department. “After they purchased these materials, they requested our electricians, through CReDO, to do the installation for them.”
“The cost is minimal because after the installation you have the light without spending another centavo for the electric bill at the end of the month,” Dandana avers.
Also, according to Dagala, able-bodied men in Solonsangan volunteered their services to erect the poles in their area.
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TVIRD Canatuan Mobile and Electrical Department Manager Fred Gonzaga: “It’s not the cost of the entire project that adds value to the project but our company’s commitment to share and to help.”
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But it’s not only the Subanons who are benefiting the diesel-fed power generator says Jona Mais, a non-Subanon mother of two and a former resident of a nearby barangay. “We applied for electricity two weeks after the generator set was installed here,” she adds, pointing to the lone bulb in her house. The Mais family moved to Solonsangan in 2007 to farm there. “With our meager income, electricity is our only luxury here,” she says.
Gonzaga says the usage of electricity in Solonsangan is regulated. “It is limited to certain hours only.” Dagala discloses that regulated use of power was imposed to minimize expenses for the diesel. “The generator set consumes 50 liters every two days, which is why electricity is on from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. only.
“The Solonsangan Hillside Farmers Association is now managing the project,” Dagala says adding the power project has already been turned over to the farmers association and it’s the association that is now tasked with the maintenance work, including the provision of a power tender.
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Jona Mais: “With our meager income, electricity is our only luxury here.”
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“A total of 27 households now enjoy electricity in Solonsangan,” says Dagala. Gonzaga believes this number will go up as people from neighboring areas will move to Solonsangan so they too can have access to the electricity that others in the community are now enjoying.
“It’s not the cost of the entire project that adds value to the community but our company’s commitment to share and to help,” Gonzaga stresses. Dagala estimates the project cost at around 1.1 Million pesos (approximately US $24,000).
“Phase 2 of the project, which is to provide electricity to the rest of Solonsangan, is now being planned. This means the erection of an additional one kilometer stretch of electrical poles,” Gonzaga says, pointing to a road curb that winds up to the hills. There are some 20 houses that will be covered under Phase 2. “We are just waiting for CReDO to give the go signal.”
Meanwhile, the Guinagag household, along with the other fortunate ones in the neighborhood, are savoring the electric service they’re now getting for free. The children in these homes can now study at night under electric lights, a modern necessity they’ve come to enjoy only recently. (Lullie Micabalo)
