Sen. Risa Hontiveros —Senate PRIB
Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday chided energy officials for the power outages that hit the country in recent days, barely months after they assured the Senate of sufficient power supply this year.
She called on the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to “step up and proactively address” the looming power shortage in the country.
“Either the energy officials or the entire power system itself is suffering from integrity problems. While a prescription has been found to solve both supply and reserve problems, but is not being followed—just another one of those broken promises again,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros made the call as DOE announced on Tuesday that it sees the Luzon grid being placed under yellow alert status 15 times for the remainder of the year, and possibly under red alert if power is cut off on any of its transmission lines.
DOE officials warned of rotating brownouts as yellow alerts are expected in all weeks of May, weeks 22 to 24 in June, weeks 32 to 34 in August, weeks 35 and 38 in September, weeks 39 and 42 in October and week 47 in November.
Hontiveros expressed dismay that yearly, the government has been beset with outages and power shortages.
“Every year the DOE and NGCP are called to act, but why does it seem like nothing is being done about it? Both of these agencies should step up and put an end to this energy crisis once and for all,” she said.
The senator also urged the DOE and NGCP to provide a transparent power and rate outlook for the coming days and months following the unexpected power outages across Luzon and the Visayas due to the tripping of NGCP’s Bolo-Masinloc transmission lines.
“Expectation vs. reality. The DOE and NGCP must be honest about the state of the power supply and what millions of consumers can expect in the coming days and months,” she said.
Hontiveros is worried that the two energy agencies may again make promises that the situation will improve but, in the end, leave consumers having to deal with blackouts and high charges.
“Our consumers deserve to be informed and notified. We should not be caught by surprise again,” Hontiveros said.
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