Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the power firms responsible for the power outage in Western Visayas should be penalized for their inefficiency.

Escudero pointed out that the island-wide power outage has caused so much business losses and opportunities for the affected cities and municipalities in Western Visayas.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), he said, should summon executives of the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) and the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) to explain and account for their liabilities in the blackout.

Authorities traced the January 2 power outage to the boiler feed pump of Unit 1 of PEDC’s coal-fired power plant and caused by the voltage imbalance in Unit 2 and Unit 1 of PCPC.

For PCPC, Escudero said he cannot understand why it took them four days to resupply power instead of just four hours, which is the usual time to resupply power in cases of maintenance shutdowns.

“I want them to explain the unscheduled shutting down of their plants and why it took a longer-than-usual period to bring the power supply back,” Escudero said.

“If their explanation is found wanting, they should be penalized for the business losses they created because of the blackouts,” he said.

“This is necessary so that other power generation companies or gencos will exercise more care and prudence in the operation of their plants as well as compliance with existing regulations,” the senator pointed out.

Likewise, Escudero said he supports a thorough investigation into the incident saying it is necessary in order to avoid similar occurrences in the future and avoid surge in prices of electricity like what previously happened in Metro Manila. 

“Power has three components—generation, transmission and distribution. All three must be looked into in order to have a complete picture and not simply do finger-pointing on how to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again in the future,” he said.

In a separate statement, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go said the DOE and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) should come up with a long-term solution to the country’s energy woes in response to the reported extensive power outage in Western Visayas. 

“The widespread lack of electricity in the entire Western Visayas is sad and disappointing. It is not only the daily livelihood of our countrymen that is affected, but especially the ordinary and poor Ilonggos who do not have the capacity to buy their own generator, are the most affected,” said Go.

“Also affected are our hospitals with all those critical medical equipment that potentially make the difference between life and death,” added Go, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Demography. 

Nearly 300 public schools in Panay Island alone have reportedly suspended their face-to-face classes. Business establishments have also suffered huge losses due to damaged goods and non-operational equipment. 

“All of these adversely affect the whole region's quality of life and productivity,” Go lamented.