Power outages hound Aquino sorties in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino and his team experienced power outages during their sorties in Mindanao but reports said the people’s attendance to the rallies was not affected, as the Chief Executive highlighted the government’s programs and projects for the region.

In Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte yesterday, Aquino led the groundbreaking of the P335-million road-upgrading project in Barangay Cogon and gave assurance that his administration would allocate more funds for 2014 to boost the country’s tourism.

According to reports, there was a power outage when the President met with local leaders at the Dipolog City Sports Complex. Aquino encountered the same situation in Buluan, Maguindanao on Friday last week but he said the mechanism to address the power shortage in Mindanao was being finalized.

The power crisis in Mindanao has been attributed to the decreased generating capacity of hydropower plants caused by the reduced water level in Lake Lanao.

Based on the Philippine Development Energy Plan 2012 to 2030, the Mindanao grid will need an additional capacity of 2,188 megawatts by 2030. The President blamed past officials for failing to foresee the problem and prepare solutions.

Aquino said there would be enough energy supply in Mindanao by 2015 and that diesel-fed generator sets would be used to deal with the power shortage in the meantime.

The President cited the need though to first fine-tune the mechanism before purchasing the generators since under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the government is prohibited from buying additional generating capacity.