AnaKalusugan Party-list Rep. Ray Reyes (Facebook)

A pro-health solon has stressed the need for a reliable power supply to ensure the delivery of medical services and other life-saving medical treatments.

Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Ray Reyes had this to say following the unplanned power interruptions that wrought havoc on the island of Luzon last week and on Panay Island last April.

At the heels of these power outages, Reyes House Resolution (HR) No. 966, urging the appropriate committees of the House of Representatives to investigate, in aid of legislation, the failure of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to provide reliable power supply to the country.

Reyes said the power outages have endangered the lives of Filipinos who are in desperate need of life support services and medical attention during these summer months.

According to the rookie congressman, the NGCP’s shortcomings in its Transmission Development Plan implementation, particularly the interconnection of all the major islands in the Philippines, is one of the reasons for the country’s intermittent and unreliable power supply.

DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara had stated that had NGCP finished the Visayas-Mindanao interconnection project, Mindanao could have helped in supplying power.

"You cannot call for better system planning when you are the sole grid system operator," Reyes said in a message to the NGCP.