Iloilo chiefs want accountability for Panay Island blackout

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor and Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas on Wednesday appealed to the Senate energy committee to ensure that someone will be held accountable for the recent power outage that hit Panay Island.

During the committee's investigation into the matter, Treñas said that the recent power disruption forced his constituents to sleep on the streets, on the esplanade, and in barangay gymnasiums.

He added that the latest blackout caused P500 million in economic losses, bringing the total losses from the four-day power disruption to an estimated P2 billion.

“Iloilo City alone suffered a loss of an estimated P2 billion. Who is going to pay for this? We are looking for accountabilities. We are not going to sit down this time and just listen to all these inquiries,” Treñas, who attended the hearing virtually, said.

“The last time this happened in April of 2023, nothing happened. No one was held accountable. Unfortunately, some of our friends in the legislature were trying to help defend those who are guilty. This time, we will not allow those people who are responsible to get away with this,” he added.

He also made the appeal to the House of Representatives, which is also set to investigate the power outage.

“Find someone who is guilty and hold them accountable and let them pay,” he pleaded.

Defensor, who physically attended the investigation, also appealed for an immediate solution to the problem, saying the people of Region VI might suffer from the same power disruption if this will not be fixed.

“The NGCP [National Grid Corporation of the Philippines] and others concerned should perfect the management of the national grid because there is no room for mistake here. Second, the completion of vital infrastructure like the Phase 3 of the Cebu-Negros-Panay Backbone and other ancillary civil structures to strengthen the grid. Otherwise, the blackout can happen again because machines really fail whether it is a washing machine or it is a coal-fired power plant,” Defensor said.

“A national grid without a backbone is not a national grid.  a national grid with unfinished backbone is a weak national grid… We have suffered 3.8 billion pesos damage that is loss of load translated to economic loss,” he added.

He reiterated the provincial government of Iloilo’s plan to take legal action, to “indicate the rights of our people and so that they will be compensated for the damage done and more importantly to exert the strongest pressure so that the blackout will not happen again.”

Panay Island was hit by a massive power outage last week due to a multiple tripping of power plants on the island.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Friday said the island power situation had returned to normal as affected power plants in Iloilo were working again.

The Department of Energy (DOE) blamed the NGCP for the power outage as it expressed support for a review of the grid operator’s congressional franchise.

President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. on Friday said that accountability lies with the NGCP given that the agency is tasked to ensure grid stability. The President said NGCP had time to prevent the massive power outage on the island.

For its part, the NGCP earlier stood by its position that the system prior to the multiple tripping was “normal” and that their actions “were undertaken within protocols.” 

“We firmly refute allegations suggesting that NGCP failed in its obligation to stabilize the transmission system,” the grid operator said in a statement. — BM, GMA Integrated News