Draft:Mindoro power crisis

The Philippine island of Mindoro, divided into two provinces—Occidental and Oriental Mindoro—has experienced several power crises since at least the 1990s. Between 2014 and 2023, the situation significantly worsened, particularly in Occidental Mindoro, with longer rotational blackouts lasting up to 20 hours a day.

Background
Mindoro, with a population of approximately one million residents, is the seventh largest and eighth most populous island in the Philippines. Located between Luzon and Palawan, it is administratively divided into two provinces: Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro, each with its own electric cooperative—Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (OMECO) and Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (ORMECO), respectively. However, while the Lubang Group of Islands is administratively part of Occidental Mindoro, it falls outside the jurisdiction of OMECO. Instead, the archipelago is serviced by Lubang Electric Power Cooperative (LUBELCO).

Similar to most electric cooperatives in the country, OMECO and ORMECO are overseen by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and have their rates regulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) of the Department of Energy (DOE).

In all of Mindoro, sixteen power plants are operational as of April 2023: four in Occidental Mindoro (two of which are on Lubang Island), and the remaining thirteen in Oriental Mindoro, none of which are connected to the national grid of the Philippines.

History
The power crisis on Mindoro traces its origins to the 1990s, and power outages have taken place even years prior. By the 2000s, the power crisis had not yet been resolved, and the National Power Corporation (Napocor) was proposed to be privatized, leading residents of Oriental Mindoro to fear longer hours of outages, with some already experiencing daily outages lasting for more than 8 hours in the southern part of the province. In May 2000, Southern Energy Philippines Inc. signed a memorandum of agreement with ORMECO that tasked the former with constructing two power plants in Oriental Mindoro—one in Pinamalayan and another in its capital city, Calapan—which would help the existing power barges in Puerto Galera and Calapan meet the energy requirements of the province. In April 2002, residents of Mamburao, Abra de Ilog, and Santa Cruz in Occidental Mindoro organized a prayer rally at Mamburao's municipal gymnasium to protest the constant blackouts that plagued their constituents for years, hampering their socio-economic growth despite the abundance of natural resources in the area.