Marcos gives firm 6 months to end Siquijor power crisis

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos on Wednesday has given government agencies and an electricity provider six months to fix the power situation in Siquijor province, as he expressed dismay that the situation on the island has become “unacceptable.”

The government, the President said, is also studying heeding the residents’ plea to replace Siquijor Island Power Corp. (Sipcor) as their power distributor.

“We have given ourselves a deadline of six months. By then, we should have a permanent solution in place so we don’t have to rely on emergency gensets (generator sets) anymore,” he said.

READ: Siquijor electricity firm brings back 7.55 MW in a bid to fix supply woes

The President visited the island province on Tuesday to personally address a worsening crisis that has left residents grappling with extended power interruptions, with some households receiving only two to five hours of electricity supply a day.

Speaking to reporters after an inspection of Sipcor facilities, Marcos said the national government will be implementing an immediate, short-term fix while working on a long-term solution to restore reliable power to the province.

“This situation is unacceptable. The victims are the ordinary people of Siquijor who cannot go about their daily lives and businesses,” he said.

Livelihood impact

The President expressed concern over the persistent outages that the province has been experiencing, supposedly undermining local livelihoods and threatening its growing tourism industry.

He questioned why Sipcor had failed to deliver consistent service, even as the Province of Siquijor Electric Cooperative (Prosielco) had been paying it properly.

Sipcor, which has a 20-year power supply agreement with Prosielco, is providing 12.86 megawatts of power through bunker-fired power generation facilities and power stations in its two power plants.

“The people are the victims of this situation. They cannot go about their business,” the President told reporters.

“Siquijor is growing so quickly. It’s becoming a tourist destination. [But] they are losing that opportunity to develop because of power woes,” he added.

As a short-term solution, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and the Palawan Electric Cooperative have agreed to send two large gensets that will be operational within days, the President said.

Marcos said these would temporarily fill the gap in supply while the government worked with Sipcor and other agencies to find a permanent fix.

“The system has already suffered permanent damage,” he said, citing poor maintenance of existing power facilities. “Sipcor has to live up to its commitments. It can’t just be patchwork.”

Marcos said Sipcor must also do its part of explaining the situation to the people.

“The governor has to explain every day to his people why they do not have electricity; it’s not their fault after all,” he said.

Last week, the provincial board passed a resolution declaring a state of calamity as the province faced widespread outages due to the critical breakdown of multiple Sipcor power generation units.

Gov. Jake Vincent Villa said the extensive power outages had plunged the island into darkness, affecting the business and tourism industry.

The board passed another resolution on Tuesday calling for a power crisis relief for consumers.

Siquijor, the third smallest province in the country, has only six towns: the capital Siquijor, Larena, Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi and San Juan. /cb