Gov vents anger on firm over Catanduanes outages

VIRAC, Catanduanes—The provincial government of Catanduanes threatened to take over a power company out of sheer frustration at the firm’s failure to generate a reliable supply of electricity for the province’s 35,000 power consumers.

Governor Joseph Cua, in his angriest reaction yet to the continuing six- to 10-hour daily brownouts plaguing the province, said the provincial government would take over facilities of Catanduanes Power Generation Inc. (CPGI) if it can’t produce enough electricity for the province.

Cua said CPGI has a contract with First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative (Ficelco), the province’s lone power distributor, to generate electricity 24 hours a day.

At a meeting last May 17 with representatives of the power industry, Cua vented his anger at CPGI.

“Don’t keep us hostage or you will be sorry for it,” Cua told the CPGI representative at the meeting, engineer Noli Najito.

Cua said CPGI should not let its P30-million investment in the province go to waste.

He said CPGI should not allow the electricity shortage to worsen and put the province in a state of calamity.

Should that happen, Cua said the provincial government would take over CPGI’s 3.6-megawatt bunker fuel-fired plant.

The governor acknowledged that while the provincial government is not technically capable of running the plant, it could hire personnel to do it.

“What is important is to end the suffering of the people, particularly the local economy, from the deleterious effects of the power shortage,” he said.

The provincial board has authorized Vice Gov. Jose Teves Jr. to form a committee to investigate the power shortage and identify violations committed by CPGI.

At the May 17 meeting, Najito said CPGI would continue to generate electricity though fuel supply for its plant was enough only to operate it for only 12 hours a day.

The supply of fuel would last only until May 30 as CPGI suffers from losses that Najito blamed on the failure of the Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a CPGI request for a rate increase.

Many areas in Mindanao are in the same boat as Catanduanes is, suffering from prolonged brownouts but for a different reason.

Officials criticizing government response to the Mindanao power crisis pointed accusing fingers at government failure to maintain hydropower facilities on the island as the biggest culprit in the crisis.

President Benigno Aquino III responded to the clamor for solutions of Mindanao consumers by telling them that they had to pay more for electricity if they wanted a stable power supply.