Iloilo provincial gov't eyes class action suit vs entities behind Western Visayas power outage

The Iloilo provincial government is considering filing a class action suit against those responsible for the power outage that affected residents and businesses in Western Visayas last week. 

“We will find legal recourse so that we can vindicate. I-vindicate natin ang damage that has been done to our people,” said Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. in Tina Panganiban-Perez’s report on “24 Oras” Tuesday. 

[We will find legal recourse so that we can vindicate. We want to vindicate the damage that has been done to our people.]

“Ang isa pang purpose nito na we will continue to apply pressure so that it will not be repeated,” Defensor Jr. said. 

[Another purpose is that we want to continue applying pressure so that it will not be repeated.]

On January 3, a power outage hit residents of Panay Island due to a multiple tripping of power plants on the island.

The power supply in the area has been restored but the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is not ruling out the possibility the scenario might happen again.

“Dahil hindi rin alam ng NGCP ang operations ng power plants at wala kaming kapangyarihan sa kanila, hindi natin masasabi kung mangyayari ulit 'yan kasi hindi natin kontrolado ang operasyon ng mga power plants,” said NGCP Spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza. 

[Because the NGCP does not know the operations of the power plants and does not have authority over them, we cannot say if this will happen again because we have no control over the operation of the power plants.]

Calls for an investigation into the incident snowballed in Congress with both the Senate and the House of Representatives conducting separate investigation on the issue. 

Some lawmakers are also calling for the review of the NGCP’s franchise including Ilocos Norte First District Rep. Sandro Marcos who filed a resolution seeking the possible separation and transfer of the systems operation function from the NGCP to another entity, "which could carry out such function more efficiently."

“Kasama diyan sa prangkisa ng NGCP ang kabuuang serbisyong pang-transmisyon kasama ang engineering, ang operations and maintenance, pati na rin ang system operations,” said Alabanza. 

[Part of our franchise is the overall transmission service including the engineering, operations and maintenance, and system operations.]

“Naniniwala kami na importanteng bahagi ng serbisyong pang-transmisyon ang system operations,” she said.

[We believe that an important part of our transmission service is the system operations.]

The NGCP said it is ready to face the legislative inquiry. The Senate will open its investigation on Wednesday while the House will start its probe on Thursday. 

“Kung mabibigyan kami ng patas na boses at titingnan ng maigi 'yung datos na nakalap sa sistema, mapapatunayan na hindi ang NGCP ang naging dahilan dito sa economic losses na nangyari,” said Alabanza. 

[If we will be given due process and lawmakers will look at the system data, then we are confident we can prove that the power outage and the economic losses are not our fault.] — Sundy Locus/BAP, GMA Integrated News