MANILA, Philippines – Energy officials should make sure that there will be no power outage on May 3, a senator warned on Wednesday.
If they fail, people who would be deprived to watch on television the mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather would turn them into “punching bags.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the executive branch should use the emergency power it is asking to prevent blackouts this summer, especially on the day of the much-awaited Pacquiao-Mayweather bout in Las Vegas.
“The effectiveness of the emergency powers will be tested on May [3],” Recto said.
“I think one promissory note we should be asking from the Department of Energy (DOE) is that there will be adequate supply of electricity on the day of the Pacquiao-Mayweather bout,” he said in a statement.
“If the people won’t be able to cheer Manny because power is out, they will jeer the government.”
“You have the powers, you will have hundreds of millions of pesos, you have the time, so please see to it that there will be no brownout not only on [May 3] but throughout summer,” Recto added.
Malacanang has invoked Section 17 in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in asking Congress for emergency powers to contract additional capacity to avert an impending power crunch.
Section 71 of the law provides that “upon the determination by the President of the Philippines of an imminent shortage of the supply of electricity, Congress may authorize, through a joint resolution, the establishment of additional generating capacity under such terms and conditions as it may approve.”