First of two parts

OVER the past year, there have been growing concerns — panic might actually be a better word for it, although no one would admit that — over the impending exhaustion of the Malampaya Gas Field, which fuels five power plants in Luzon that account for about 3,000 megawatts of capacity. There are other offshore gas reserves available, particularly in the neighborhood of the Reed (Recto) Bank, but even if the Philippines could somehow get around the obstacle posed by China's toddler-like insistence that it owns the entire ocean, tapping these supplies in a productive manner would still be five to seven years away, and so the country needs to do something in the meantime if it doesn't want at least a quarter of its population left in the dark.

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