By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
In the middle of nowhere, a run of river hydropower plant is about to be constructed. We are talking here of about a few months. The locale is Besao, Mountain Province. The project is the brainchild of Atty. Richard Stone Pooten who had been away right after becoming a lawyer in the mid-70s. Thereafter, he worked with his wife starting as employees in the United Kingdom while raising a family. When they got established, they put up their own businesses. Hardwork of course was their secret and luck or being blessed. How could they not be blessed?
They had been helping out thousands and thousands of Cordillerans and other Filipinos who ventured into that country in search of greener pastures. Somebody said that their place was like a hal-fway house. Cordillerans and other Filipinos would stay there until they found jobs or got established, then they move on. I once asked Atty. Pooten if he remembered a Cordilleran lady who took shelter at their place before she got employed as a nurse and he could not remember her name due to the huge number of people they had been helping or taking under their wings. Anyway, that lady later on got married to an Irish engineer about her age from Ireland, the Republic. They have two children.
Back to the minihydro project he started. After about 10 years of huge investment from his own pocket for the project, they (with his assistants, nominees, minions or staff or hangers-on) have finally satisfied all requirements and the financing bank is ready to release what is needed. Ten years! In other climes and other times, that is just too long. A year or two should be the reasonable time frame. But this country would not be the Philippines if we were that efficient.
The project as foreseen will first operate with an expected output of about seven (7) megawatts. To put things into proper perspective, Baguio City is using about 15 megawatts of power. After more turbines are installed downstream, it might finally end up producing 18 megawatts.
The way things look, the energy from the plant might start being transmitted to the national grid in about two years. God willing.
What is more important is the effect of the project to the people in the community. For an end of the road town, there will be huge economic benefits. There will be jobs galore and new businesses will start sprouting while existing ones will experience a shot in the arm in terms of greatly increased revenues. It will not anymore be a sleepy hinterland town as the municipal government will have a big share from the revenues of the firm including the barangay LGU.
The more important effect of the project are of course the intangibles. Most important is the effect on the thinking of the locals. Looking at a local guy starting and pulling off such a humongous project whose capitalization is about a billion pesos will surely expand the way the younger generation there thinks. It will stimulate or wake up in them a “can do” spirit as what Atty. Pooten has. Such will keep rolling in their minds and the good effects will keep rolling out from their heads for decades if not generations. The small town thinking would hopefully be replaced.
Such a big project has to be undertaken through a corporation so one must have been formed from the very beginning. That certainly involves a number of people as incorporators, but I think most of them are his nominees or only have nominal interest or investment, if at all. The accolades however for the trailblazing spirit and venture can only belong to Atty. Pooten. The others in the corporation, most probably, have only an employee mentality and would be nowhere as far as starting a trailblazing venture is concerned. But at least they are there to help out. This is not to downgrade their contribution but to inspire them also to come up with trailblazing ventures of their own.
Another big effect of the project is the effect on other minihydro operators. What Atty. Pooten or his group promised the community or stakeholders as share from the returns are considered quite high among industry players. Yet this might be because Atty. Pooten has the welfare of the community and its people in mind.
That high share might soon become the gold standard hereabouts. People of other areas that will be hosting similar projects will ask the same high rate. And this info will spread like wildfire all over the country. When that happens, the beneficiaries all over this country wiil only have Atty. Pooten to thank.
We will write more about other benefits of the project in the future.**
