Duterte orders energy officials to address rotational brownouts
President Duterte wants an end to rotational brownouts in the country.

The President has directed energy authorities to address the country's power supply following the recent outages in Luzon. The directive was issued during a meeting with officials of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) last week.
"Ang bottom line, sinabi ni Presidente, 'Ayaw kong magkaroon ng rotational brownouts' ( The bottom line, the President said, 'I don't want rotational brownouts')," Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said during a televised press briefing Monday, June 28.
Roque noted that the NGCP officials informed the President that the state firm could only purchase power to promote the stability of the grid.
"They have the legal basis to purchase power pero (but) it is only to promote stability of the grid. It is not to provide further supply to the grid kasi NGCP nga po sila ano (because they are NGCP)," he said.
The NGCP officials also informed the President that the power outage was due to a shortage of supply.
"Kulang daw po talaga ang supply and iyong kanilang (The supply is insufficient and their) ancillary authority to purchase power is only to provide stability on the grid. Pero ang sabi po ni President (but the President said) 'I don’t want rotational brownouts,'" Roque said.
In the same meeting, Roque said the President raised the issue of a Social Security System (SSS) property of around six hectares in Pasay that was expropriated by NGCP.
"I confirm that the officials of the NGCP could not justify why they went for expropriating six hectares land when all they needed was 2,000. But they apparently give the President an assurance that they will not proceed with that particular expropriation in Pasay," he said.
The Department of Energy earlier said it was probing the possible sabotage as well as alleged collusion among power companies following the rotational brownouts in Luzon. He attributed the power interruptions to the forced and unplanned outages of several major power plants supply Luzon.