Cusi told to solve power issues before moving to extend Duterte's stay in gov't

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate on Tuesday urged Energy Chief Alfonso Cusi to address the thin power supply in Luzon instead of attending to intramurals in the ruling PDP-Laban.

Cusi presided over the national council meeting of the PDP-Laban on Monday, when the council adopted a resolution calling on President Rodrigo Duterte to run for vice president in Eleksyon 2022.

"Yesterday there were yellow and red alerts. Today there is another red alert but this is worse than yesterday considering that 458MW is the deficiency of supply today versus 200MW yesterday, so this means double the brown out,"  Zarate said in a statement.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines announced rotational brownouts may occur in Luzon due to the thin power supply and unplanned outages of several power plants. 

"Sana ang pagsolusyon dito ang inuuna ni Sec. Cusi hindi yung banggayan sa partido nila para mas tumagal pa si President Rodrigo Duterte sa poder,"  Zarate said.

[Cusi should prioritize solving this instead of their fight in their ruling party so that President Duterte can still stay in government.]

Duterte is the chairman of the party while Cusi is a vice chairman.

Party president Senator Manny Pacquiao questioned the meeting and even asked its members to ignore Cusi's call to convene the national council.

Duterte, however, authorized Cusi to convene the council and even sent a video message to the members who attended the meeting.

GMA News Online has reached out to Cusi for comment.

Zarate called for an amendment and review of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) so that the government will be mandated to make and implement the energy plan instead of  the "power oligarchs."

"As it is, with the EPIRA, electricity rates have increased more than 100% since its enactment in 2001, with periodic yellow and red alerts along with hours long brown outs especially in the provinces," Zarate said.

Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares said owners of generation companies must shoulder the additional cost of power that was caused by plant shutdowns.

"Tama lang ito dahil sila naman talaga ang may kasalanan. May kontrata sila to deliver electricity to the public pero di nila naibigay. Kung nasira ang boiler o anumang problema yan, kargo nila dapat. Wag nilang ikarga sa aming consumers. Ibig sabihin sila ang magbayad sa power shortage at resultang pagtaas ng presyo ng kuryente na sila din naman ang may kagagawan," Colmenares said in the same statement.

[They are at fault. They have contracts to deliver electricity to the public but they failed to deliver. If the broiler is broken or whatever problem they have, they should have accountability for this. Don't burden consumers. This means, they should pay for power shortage and increase in electricity bills.]

PDP-Laban executive director Ron Munsayac earlier said Pacquiao has sought a meeting with Duterte to talk about what he called "simple misunderstanding." 

During the party's assembly on Monday, PDP-Laban approved a resolution pushing Duterte to run for vice president in the 2022 polls. —NB, GMA News