MANILA, Philippines — Senator Francis Escudero believes power firms who would be deemed responsible for the power outage in the entire Panay Island since Tuesday should be punished due to their inefficiency.
Escudero said in a statement on Friday that the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) should summon the officials of the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) and the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) to explain what went wrong in the power distribution over Western Visayas.
Households in Panay Island including other areas like Guimaras and some parts of Negros Island were plunged into darkness last Tuesday, which according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NCGP) was caused by unscheduled maintenance shutdowns of different power plants.
READ: NGCP asserts need for better resource planning after Panay power outage
“I want them to explain the unscheduled shutting down of their plants and why it took a longer-than-usual period to bring the power supply back. For PCPC, I cannot understand why it took them four days to resupply power instead of just four hours, which is the usual time to resupply power in cases of maintenance shutdowns,” Escudero said.
“If their explanation is found wanting, they should be penalized for the business losses they created because of the blackouts. This is necessary so that other power generation companies or gencos will exercise more care and prudence in the operation of their plants as well as compliance with existing regulations,” he added.
The senator reiterated the need for a thorough investigation so that similar incidents can be avoided, along with the possibility of an upward surge in electricity prices despite poor service.
“Power has three components — generation, transmission, and distribution. All three must be looked into in order to have a complete picture and not simply do finger-pointing on how to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again in the future,” he noted.
Several lawmakers from both the House and the Senate have called for a probe of the issue, as the impact on livelihood, schools, and businesses has been severe, with Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas labeling it an “economic sabotage.”
Earlier, Iloilo City Rep. Julienne Baronda shared a document showing that the House committee on energy headed by former speaker and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco will start its probe of the issue on Thursday, January 11.
READ: Iloilo solon calls for probe into massive power outage in Panay