The Senate Committee on Energy will pursue legal remedies to hold accountable those responsible for power interruptions in many parts of Palawan, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Wednesday.
Gatchalian directed the National Electrification Administration to look into the liabilities of private generation companies and the Palawan Electric Cooperative, saying their inaction led to the prolonged power shortage that started since January this year.
“The most glaring problem that has caused the power outages is the failure of the gencos to deliver on their commitments. We can hold these gencos for breach of contract, and the Paleco for possible mismanagement of the utilities,” said the lawmaker.
Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy, said the power supply of Palawan must be stabilized “as soon as possible.”
The senator also blamed DMCI Power Corp. for its failure to deliver the 25-megawatt capacity under a power supply agreement with the Paleco.
DMCI Power earlier said it met its power supply obligation with a total of 26.6 MW available power as of the end of August.
The committee, however, said DMCI had been delivering less than its power supply commitment, which the Paleco and Gatchalian earlier said was the primary reason for the power shortage.
Gatchalian has ordered the DMCI to submit a plan of action to sustain the supply of power to Palawan.
The senator required DMCI to submit its performance report on a per generation set basis for the last 60 days.
Gatchalian also asked the NEA to require the Paleco to submit a performance report on the three gencos, which have existing power supply agreements with the electric cooperative.
“It is time for NEA to flex its muscles in extracting info from Paleco,” he said.
“Let us all move forward and solve this problem. The status quo is not acceptable to the people of Palawan,” Gatchalian said.
NEA administrator Edgardo Masongsong said the agency would deploy a technical team to Palawan this week to further evaluate the situation. They are expected to meet with Paleco executives as well as other local government officials.
