APEC Party-list Representative Sergio Dagooc and Occidental Mindoro Lone District Representative Leody Tarriela called on the government to address power outages affecting more than 25 million Filipinos in 32 island provinces in the country.
Dagooc said to help address the problem of rotational brownouts, he wrote to House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez for the augmentation of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) budget.
Meanwhile, the legislator cited that the NPC issued an advisory to 32 electric cooperatives that effective March 1, the NPC would reduce the operating hours of Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG).
This reduction, which would affect both NPC-operated plants and New Power Producers (NPPs), is due to the high cost of diesel and budgetary constraints.
“Metro Manila residents are enjoying the use of uninterrupted electricity, while those in the island provinces could only do so for six to 16 hours.”
The lawmaker lamented how Metro Manila residents are enjoying the use of uninterrupted electricity, while those in the island provinces could only do so for six to 16 hours.
He also raised that electricity costs could go from P40 to P60 per hour in island provinces, while only around P10 in Metro Manila.
Dagooc then cited Section 70 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which provides that the NPC, through the SPUG, “shall perform the missionary electrification function and shall be responsible for providing power generation and its associated power delivery systems in areas that are not connected to the transmission system”.
“Electricity is not a luxury but a necessity.”
For his part, Tarriela stressed that electricity is not a luxury but a necessity.
The legislator said the NPC and SPUG should not only rely on its budget but also consider other funding sources such as banks.
The lawmaker urged to address the power outages not only in Mindoro, but in all island provinces affected.
