Last year there were rolling blackouts of two hours duration and sometimes twice per day across the province. This year the blackouts are three to four or even up to five or six hours two or three times a day usually averaging eight to nine hours in daily total.

The difference? Apart from the normal increases with new housing developments there is one major added user of electricity in the region, Trans-Kalla studios. Hailed at its opening in the local news as the worlds largest indoor attraction the entire place is air conditioned.

I asked a local PLN office how much effect the studio had on the current crisis and he was quick to point out that the theme park had its own generators which were used at night, when the air conditioners would need less power. While dressmakers, photocopying businesses, internet cafes and tailors sit waiting for the power to come back on and  so that they can go about earning their livelihoods the tills at the Trans-Kalla money machine are filled to overflowing.

Another strange thing is that Bosowa (owned by a Kalla in-law) is one of the largest power users at its cement plant and is also a power supplier. I can’t understand why they would not generate their own power for the cement plant and cut out the middleman, unless of course there is a dodgy deal going on with subsidized power pricing to this obviously industrial user.

The other cement plant is the Tonasa plant which is a milk cow for local government figures. Several years ago when the Philippines exported cement to Sulawesi at a price 40% lower than the two locals would sell their own products the government stepped in and banned further importation when the locals squealed about being unable to compete. Consumers be damned, take care of the rich cronies.

What is most disgusting about the current crisis is how it clearly shows that the man who made a bid for the presidency seems to have no qualms whatever about getting richer on the suffering of the ordinary people.