Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has expressed hope that incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will appoint an Energy secretary who can address the country’s problem on power supply.

Gatchalian noted that the current leadership of the Department of Energy (DOE), headed by Secretary Alfonso Cusi, failed to address the problem after six years of serving the Duterte administration.

“Based on my information, kaya mababa ang reserves natin dahil may plantang pumalya at may transmission lines na pumalya (the reason why our energy reserves are low is because there are power plants and transmission lines that failed),” Gatchalian said.

“But this is not a good sign. Because after six years of the incumbent, DOE, ganun pa rin, patapos na ang kanilang termino (it’s still the same, and yet their term is about to end),” the Senate Committee on Energy chief further said.

Gatchalian said the country constantly experiences to be on red alert and yellow alert and bouts of power outages.

“So the next administration should really appoint a secretary who will deal with these red and yellow alerts. This is very basic,” he said.

“(A) country like ours should not have yellow and red alerts anymore. With red and yellow alerts, we cannot invite investors. Ibig sabihin wala tayong kuryente (It means we have no electricity),” he pointed out.

“So this is a fundamental problem that the next DOE secretary should address. And it can be addressed by making sure we have enough supply. Making sure that plants ang operating at 100 percent,” the lawmaker stressed.