ENERGY Secretary Alfonso Cusi yesterday assured the public that electricity supply has returned to normal and apologized for brownouts experienced in the past days in parts of Luzon.
He said the supply yesterday was 11,600 megawatts, and the projected demand was 10,300 megawatts.
Cusi, in a briefing, also denied allegations he was prioritizing politics instead of attending to the power shortage problem. Cusi was in Cebu City leading a council meeting of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban ng Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in Cebu on May 31 the power outages started.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines has warned electricity consumers in Luzon of rotational brownouts in the first week of the month because of thin power supply resulting from planned and unplanned power outages of several power plants.
Cusi said he is not the only person working in the Department of Energy (DOE), and he has a lot of competent people in the department.
He also said that in the past five years he has been in office, it was the first time that rotating brownouts occurred, which he attributed to the “breakdown” of four big power plants.
He said investigations are ongoing to determine if there was sabotage or collusion among power plants. Another angle being looked at is price manipulation.
“I apologize for the last two days na nagkaroon po ng rotating brownouts. Dahil po ‘yon dahil sa sabay-sabay po na nagkaroon po ng breakdown ng apat na plantang malalaki (I apologize for the last two days here we had rotating brownouts. It was due to the simultaneous breakdown of four big power plants),” Cusi said.
He said it was just a coincidence that the brownouts happened when he was presiding over the council meeting.
Cusi is the vice chairman of PDP-Laban and President Duterte — who is the administration party’s chairman — ordered him to convene and preside over the meeting of the council.
The meeting had been opposed by Sen. Manny Pacquiao, the party’s acting president. On Wednesday, Pacquiao accused Cusi of playing politics instead of addressing the power problem.
Cusi said he was sad that the criticism came from a party mate but said he had never, and would never, say anything against any official.
“Those power plants broke down na nagkataon naman po, natiyempo na we have a meeting in Cebu. But it doesn’t mean na napapabayaan ko because I’m not the only guy that is running DOE (Those power plants broke down when we had a meeting in Cebu. But it doesn’t mean that I was remiss because I’m not the only guy that is running DOE),” he said.
“So wala pong relasyon iyong pagmi-meeting sa Cebu (So our meeting in Cebu has no relation to it.) That is another function. And I can do jobs, with all the technology that we have today, we can perform more,” he said.
He also said the transmission lines affected by tropical storm Dante in Samar have already been re-energized as of June 1.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the shortage in power supply in Luzon, saying the Department of Energy should be held accountable for its failure to address the problem since 2016.
Gatchalian, Senate energy committee chair, said Senate Resolution No. 740 will also seek to provide a long-term solution to the power shortage, especially during dry months.
Reports reaching Gatchalian said the blackouts early this week affected 339,000 households from 90 barangays in 16 cities and municipalities. He said two vaccination centers in Valenzuela City also experienced blackout.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said the DOE shifting the blame on private power companies for the power outages in Luzon is just a coverup for the government’s incompetence to provide its people with ample energy supply.
“It’s disappointing. Blame everyone except yourself. Where is accountability?” Drilon said.
The DOE has said it is planning to file charges of economic sabotage against private power companies for allegedly conducting preventive maintenance work from April to June, which led to the power shortage in Luzon.
At the House, the committee on energy said it will launch a motu proprio investigation starting today into the status of power supply in Luzon and the causes of the rotational brownouts.
Energy panel chairman Juan Miguel Arroyo (Pampanga) said the inquiry will be aimed at threshing out the reasons for the power shortage and will try to come up with recommendations to address the problem.
Aside from the NGCP, also invited are representatives from the Department of Energy, National Electrification Administration, Energy Regulatory Commission, and other stakeholders in the power industry.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the DOJ through the National Bureau of Investigation is ready to look into the possibility of collusion among power generation companies. — With Raymond Africa, Peter Tabingo and Ashzel Hachero
