Fix power shortage in Mindanao to avoid poll fraud, gov’t urged

A bishop from Mindanao on Wednesday urged the government to respond to the power shortage and rotational brownouts in the region to prevent cheating in the May 9 national elections.

“’Yun ang dapat iwasan; ‘yan ang dapat na huwag mangyari na maapektuhan ang halalan dahil sa brownout na nangyayari,” Cotabato Auxilliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo told Radyo Veritas.

Bagaforo said he hopes the government would be able to address the power outage issue, which has long been affecting Mindanao.

“Sana huwag mangyari yung rotational brownout sa araw ng halalan,” he said.

(That’s what we should avoid. That is what should not happen, that the brownout would affect the elections… I hope the rotational brownout will not happen on the day of the elections.)

He said that the continuous shortage of power supply is caused by the insufficient water supply to run their hydroelectric power source, which is the main source of electricity of Mindanao.

The rotational brownout in Mindanao has been attributed to the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

“Hindi mabuti at hanggang ngayon mayroon pa ring rotational brownout sa maraming lugar sa Mindanao dahil sa kulang ang tubig; kulang ang lakas ng tubig sa Napocor,” he told Radyo Veritas.

(It’s not good that until now there are still many places in Mindanao that have rotational brownouts because of water shortage; Napocor’s water supply isn’t strong enough .)

A red alert status was earlier raised by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Mindanao because of thin power supply. Aljon Tugaoen/INQUIRER.net trainee/JE

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