Incompetence cause of power outages — Fernando

Bagumbayan vice presidential bet Bayani Fernando said poor engineering and the incompetence of government officials are to blame for the frequent power outages nationwide.

This, after Metro Manila and some provinces in Luzon have gone through a series of two- to three-hour brownouts everyday for the past few weeks after the 540-megawatt Limay combined cycle power plant in Bataan province and the Malampaya gas power plant were shut down for maintenance.

“The simultaneous shutting down of power plants for, accordingly, maintenance purposes, the poor inventory of power source and requirements and the poor anticipation of the ‘El Niño phenomenon’ are just some of the proofs of engineering incompetence of our energy officials,” Fernando said.

The former Marikina City mayor and former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman suggested that energy officials come up with an ideal schedule of maintaining and upgrading the power plants in the country and not do it simultaneously and unannounced to the public.

“It’s a waste of valuable campaign funds if brownouts occur in areas where we, and other opposition candidates, believe we have many supporters,” he said.

Fernando, an engineer by profession, said the country needs leaders with technical know-how who understands engineering problems. –PNA