Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 1) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the national government can “augment” efforts to address power distribution problems in Negros and Panay Island.
“Ang nagkaka-problema ngayon are Negros and Panay Island (Negros and Panay Islands are the ones having problems now). The irony is Negros actually has a surplus of power supply,” Marcos said on board a plane on Sunday as he flew to the US for his 5-day visit. “The reason na nagkaka-brownout (The reason why there’s a brownout) is because sa distribution system sa high tension wire… So that’s what we will have to look into.”
“Kung hindi kaya ng mga gumagawa (If they can’t do it), maybe the government na lang will be the one. We’ll augment,” he said.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas grid—including the Panay, Cebu, Negros, Leyte, Samar, and Bohol island grids—on red alert last April 27.
The NGCP downgraded it to a yellow alert a day after, which means “operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s regulating and contingency requirements.”
Marcos also attributed the current power problems experiencing by other Filipinos to hot weather.
“The power outages, well talagang it’s a consequence of the weather at napaka-init. We are now trying to control or trying to manage rather our water consumption, our power consumption because that’s very closely related,” he said.
