Some Good News...

[mazdamazda]

As what BlackRaven & Mikaztro suggested... am staring a thread about the good things happening here in our country.

===

> The Philippines' dependence on imported oil is continually decreasing. Only Ramos & Arroyo (in their respective terms) were able to do that. Of our total energy consumption, 62% comes from indigienous resources & 38% from imported oil.

> Inflation is still better than expected at 7.6% (it was projected at around 7.9-8.4%).

[mikaztro]

SE Asia's first windmills to rise in Ilocandia
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer News Service Apr. 18, 2004

25-MW wind farm

SOUTHEAST Asia's first "windmills" are soon to rise in Ilocandia, courtesy of a Filipino-Danish company.

Construction of the 25-megawatt wind farm is scheduled to start next week along the shores of Bangui town, Ilocos Norte province, drawing cheers from environmentalists lobbying against the Philippines' heavy dependence on "dirty" fuels like oil and coal.

The 37-million-dollar plant will harvest the breezes of the South China Sea using 15 giant wind turbines, each standing 70 meters high with rotor blades spanning 40 meters.

Picture it: Each turbine will be four meters higher than the Quezon Monument in Quezon City, and the blade span will equal the length of two volleyball courts.

The World Wildlife Fund-Philippines views the venture as a "major turning point" in the country's development of cleaner energy sources.

The project is expected to generate at least one-third of Ilocos Norte's total power requirement and stabilize the often fluctuating supply in some parts of the province, according to lawyer Ferdinand Dumlao, chair of the NorthWind Power Development Corp., which is building and managing the plant.

The wind turbines also promise to be another tourist attraction in the Ilocos region, Dumlao said in an interview on Thursday.

Motorists passing through Bangui on the national highway won't miss the white steel structures, he said. Tourists may also enjoy the sight from a "viewing deck" about five kilometers from the site.

Construction begins on April 24 in Barangay Baruyen, with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo invited to the groundbreaking rites.

The turbines, manufactured by Dutch company Vestas Wind Systems, will be erected on a 4-km stretch of shoreline facing Bangui Bay.

Each tower holding the blades will have a 6-meter diameter base, Dumlao said, adding:

"You can actually put up an office inside; that's how huge it is."

The plant is expected to be ready for operations by December, with an initial output of 25 megawatts that will complement the local supply from the National Power Corp.

Power distribution will be handled by the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative.

Unstable supply

An Ilocano and a consultant of the provincial government, Dumlao himself pushed the idea to build the wind farm in Ilocos Norte.

"I know there is a big need to improve our electricity [supply]," he said. "Because we are situated at the end of the Napocor grid, we are often the first to suffer whenever there's a disturbance or reduction of supply at the source."

Dumlao noted that this "unstable power supply" had long been a turnoff to prospective investors in the province despite its good roads, seaport and airport.

He said NorthWind, whose ownership is 60-percent Filipino and 40-percent Danish, "took its cue" from studies conducted by the Department of Energy on the viability of building wind farms in the country.

To run, the turbines need "continuous wind" with an average speed of at least seven meters per second or 26 km per hour.

The winds sweeping Ilocos Norte shores are much stronger than that, he said.

The project is largely funded by a 29-million-dollar soft loan from the Danish International Development Agency, Dumlao said.

He conceded that it would be cheaper to build conventional power plants driven by fossil fuels, mainly coal or diesel. Building such plants entails a cost of 800,000 dollars per megawatt, while wind farms require up to about 1.2 million dollars per megawatt.

"But wind is free, so a wind farm comes out cheaper in the long run," he pointed out. "It doesn't rely on imported fuels which are subject to price increases and the peso-dollar exchange rate. The maintenance cost is also lower."

He added: "If the planned Bangui plant would still be run by coal, its 25-megawatt capacity would result in 76,000 tons of carbon dioxide being dumped in the atmosphere each year."

Immense potential

"This will be the first wind farm in Southeast Asia and a major turning point in tapping the immense potential of alternative power sources in the Philippines," said WWF-Philippines project manager Raf Senga, who noted that "cleaner sources of energy are making the rounds in the Philippines."

According to Senga, the country is the "second biggest" producer of geothermal power after the United States, and up to 36 rural barangays in Mindanao are now running on solar power.

But in a study released last month, the WWF-Philippines lamented that the power sector was still highly dependent on fossil fuels despite the emergence of earth-friendly technologies for harnessing renewable and cleaner energy.

As of 2001, the study said, the domestic "energy mix" was 60-percent dirty fuel (40-percent coal and 20-percent oil). Geothermal energy only made up 22 percent; hydro power, 15 percent; and natural gas, a measly 2 percent.

But Senga stressed: "[We] remain optimistic that when Filipinos are presented the benefits of choosing clean power sources, there will be no stopping the cleaner winds of change."

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This might solve some of our problems.

As of today, the Windmills of Ilocos is now the forefront of Ilocandia's pride.
Once fully completed, the said Northwind project would be sold to Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) under the 20-year electricity sales agreement at a discount rate. The project is now partially operational and is providing electricity for households in a couple of barangays. I first saw it in The Correspondents.

I just hope there is no anomalous agreement in this project.

See related story: WINDMILLS AT THE CENTER OF ILOCOS SLAY PROBE

[carfrancis]

nice one, M2. we need the good news. kundi we'll all suffer from depression.

Suspected 'ketamine' laboratory in Manila raided
First posted 09:46am (Mla time) July 06, 2005
INQ7.net, GMA7

AUTHORITIES raided a suspected “ketamine” laboratory in Manila's Paco district on Wednesday, the chief of the police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF) said on the same day.

Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon said in a text message that Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) teams had not come up with an estimated worth of the chemicals and equipment seized from the facility.

“The important thing is that we discovered this [laboratory] and we would arrest those behind this,” Manila Mayor Jose Atienza Jr. told GMA Network's radio station dzBB.

Reports said liquid chemicals, a weighing scale, a plastic bag sealer, two burners, and four liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks were seized.

“Ketamine,” a steroid for racehorses, is being peddled as a “party drug” and as a substitute for metamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” and ecstacy.

[mikey177]

Family resemblances can be lifesavers.

A father who had been missing and who was already presumed dead by his children was reunited with them after 35 long years.

One of the sons of this man worked as a security guard. His colleague asked him one day, "Do you have any relatives in Isabela? I've seen someone there who is your spitting image, only older."

This led the son to ask more about what his fellow guard had said. Eventually, the guard and his siblings went to Isabela to see firsthand who this mysterious stranger was.

They were quite surprised and almost couldn't believe that the person they found there looked very much like their father, a businessman who had been missing since they were kids.

The man was already in his 80s, homeless, and without any recollection of his earlier years, but his children knew the man was their father because of his resemblance to them and because of his birthmark.

The family went home together. The children have slowly been nursing the old man back to health and helping him to remember their common past.

***********

This is a true story by the way. You won't find it in any tabloid. It was relayed to me by my wife. The old man is one of her patients

[pajerokid]

Uhm, I got a fat raise. I'm not sure how relevant this is to other people though

[mrpink]

Uhm, I got a fat raise. I'm not sure how relevant this is to other people though

.. it's relevant kung i-sha-share mo sa fellow tsikoteers sa isang ebinuman ..

[Bogeyman]

Ah, relevant yan sa amin. Lalo na kung magti-trickle down yung grasya (ahem, ahem).

[mazdamazda]

Uhm, I got a fat raise. I'm not sure how relevant this is to other people though

pre... may dagdag pa aside from the AMI?

[1D4LV]

one good news to all of us is

WE STILL HAVE OUR JOBS....

at hindi nagsasara ang mga kompanya natin, hindi sila nadidismaya sa mga nangyayari dito sa pinas, and some of us are still afforded with huge and decent walary increases and benefits...




sabi nga nila, we have to be so thankful for those small things...

[baurtwellXUV]

one good news to all of us is

WE STILL HAVE OUR JOBS....

at hindi nagsasara ang mga kompanya natin, hindi sila nadidismaya sa mga nangyayari dito sa pinas, and some of us are still afforded with huge and decent walary increases and benefits...




sabi nga nila, we have to be so thankful for those small things...

i agree pa rin. we still have our J.O.B. pero swerte nyo pa rin you've got a raise.. in my case wala eh...