PH electric power industry: Harbinger of progress

Electric power is a vital barometer of a country's economic progress.

- ENDEAVOR SONNY COLOMA

This is depicted by aerial photos of the Korean peninsula taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, first in 2014, then a decade later. According to one account: "It showed South Korea and China bathed by nighttime light while North Korea was largely dark." A decade later, notes the same source, North Korea seems to be getting brighter at night; "It is a far cry from South Korea's enormous glow, but indicates that there are areas in North Korea with more access to electricity than before."

Such insight came to the fore as I leafed through the pages of a newly released book on Everything You Wanted To Know About the Philippine Electric Industry: 24 Years After EPIRA, jointly authored by Fernando Martin Y. Roxas and Pablo B. Anido.

Nani Roxas is a longtime friend. We are fellow MBA graduates of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), and were colleagues, too, in the AIM faculty where he served as executive director of the Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism before he accepted appointment as president of the National Power Corporation (Napocor). He joined Napocor as a geologist in 1978 and rose to the position of strategic planning unit head that gave him the opportunity to be involved in overseeing key initiatives in the power industry. He also holds a master's degree in geology from the Asian Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in business administration from De La Salle University (DLSU).