Nograles blames DOE’s lack of focus over recurring power outages

MANILA – House committee on energy vice chair Jericho Nograles has blamed the lack of focus by the Department of Energy as well as the bad management and too much political bickering in the power sector over the country’s erratic and unreliable power supply.

Nograles, representative of PBA Party-list said, it was quite ironic that load droppings on power supply have occurred more frequently during the pandemic when demand is lower especially from industrial consumers.

Nograles, who’s been working remotely in General Santos City, stressed that he had to switch to using his phone from his laptop while he was on a Zoom during last week’s House energy panel’s inquiry on the country’s energy situation because of two successive power interruptions in his location.

The lawmaker explained that his experience is “incontrovertible proof” that the various government agencies that are responsible for ensuring a cheap and reliable power supply in the country have failed miserably in competently addressing the country’s serious energy problem.

“It’s been six-and-a-half hours into this hearing and I have experienced two brownouts here in General Santos City. I did not hear a single person bring up the brownouts and all I hear are people pointing fingers. This is a miserable failure of everyone. I’m sorry it’s a miserable failure,” said Nograles.

Flatly rejecting claims by DOE officials that the only way to solve the country’s energy problem is to amend Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), Nograles noted that the primary issue is not the law but it is “bad management” and “too much politicking.”

“Ang nangyayari dito, due to lack of coordination, lack of cooperation, and mostly finger-pointing and politicking, ang kawawa ang taumbayan kasi nagba-brownout ang ating bansa. I see here a problem that is political and due to bad management,” he said.

Without naming names, Nograles said that energy officials should focus on their job to stop the recurring brownouts which is slowing down the country’s economic recovery.

“(Energy) demand has gone lower because economic activities have slowed down. There is a slowdown in manufacturing, a slowdown in commercial activities like the malls… the point is all these things are happening for a reason and nobody is owning up to the reason,” Nograles noted.

Meanwhile, Nograles has dismissed claims that the generation companies and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) are responsible for the outages because they too are victims of these power interruptions.

“You see, on the part of the Gencos (generating companies), they want to make money because they don’t wanna shut down. Likewise, transmission, of course they want to make money, they want to service everybody,” said Nograles. (JCC)

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)