BACOLOD City – National Scientist Raul V. Fabella is advocating the “twinning” of Iloilo and Bacolod cities.
Fabella, a native of Bacolod, sees immense growth potentials in the two highly urbanized cities in Western Visayas – specifically in energy production and distribution.
“I am a strong advocate of making Bacolod and Iloilo twin West Visayan cities [that can be] a growth pole,” the academician said in a recent engagement in this city.
Iloilo and Bacolod could “counter the attraction to National Capital Region as a growth pole for jobs and low cost of power,” Fabella said.
“These two cities will have lower power costs because of the outcomes of [energy] investments,” he said.
Fabella enumerated the investments in solar and coal power and the energy cogenerated by sugar mills that he said make Negros Occidental and Iloilo “power-surplus provinces.”
Bacolod is the capital city of Negros Occidental.
“Power surplus attracts a lot of investors,” Fabella stressed. “Prices will stabilize, supply will stabilize – and prices will actually go down.”
Moreover, Negrenses should advocate for the upgrade of submarine cables and push the Department of Energy to prioritize this, said Fabella, one of the 13 living National Scientists.
If submarine cables accommodate the surplus energy produced by Negros and Iloilo, power deficits in some regions may be solved, he said.
“Cebu, in the future, will have to buy power from Negros,” said Fabella.
“In the future, Negros will not be known as the ‘Sugar Bowl.’ Negros will be known as the source of power – cheap power,” he said. (With Philippine Information Agency/PN)
