Assy. Padate addresses power woes in Lanao Sur

COTABATO CITY --- Second District of Lanao del Sur Assemblyman Atty. Abol Alam Padate has revealed the current power problem following outages in several towns of theprovince.

After three committee hearings, Assemblyman Padate, who chairs the committee on power and energy, terminated the investigation on the failure of the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (LASURECO) to provide electricity in some parts of its concession areas, particularly in the seven coastal towns.

Both LASURECO, under the new management of General Manager Nordjana Dipatuan-Ducol, and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) committed to restore the electricity in the affected coastal towns.

The NGCP has reached an agreement with LASURECO to rehabilitate the 69KV power lines from Tugaya to the coastal towns at their expense but subject to refund.

“Accordingly, the rehabilitation of the power lines will take two months without any distraction. Equipment and the needed parts are all set and anytime soon, they will commence the rehabilitation,” Padate said.

On the other hand, LASURECO announced that the P84 million they requested for the rehabilitation of the power lines in the seven coastal towns was approved as it requested the committee to adopt a resolution requesting the immediate release of the amount.

Further, Padate said they have been assured by the new management of  LASURECO that it has addressed the problem in collections.

“In fact, with only a few months since the new general manager assumed office, they were able to collect more than P18-M from the consumers,” he said.

Earlier, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi ordered an investigation over allegations of corruption against LASURECO officials that led to the four-year power outages in several towns in the province.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said that mayors from at least seven towns, who met previously with Cusi and other government officials, wanted to take the power distribution "out of the control of LASURECO, which owes the NGCP an estimated P10 billion of unpaid power bills.

The plea from local chief executives came as they cited the reported release of P64 million during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III before the May 2016 elections for the purchase of 20,000 units of electric power meters.

A mayor even pointed out “what's the use of buying meters when we don't have power.”

“Both the money and the power meters could not be accounted for, ” Piñol said.

Besides the probe on LASURECO, Cusi also ordered for the restoration of power in the municipalities of Malabang, Picong, Balabagan, Calanogas, Marogong, and Pagayawan.

Piñol added that the protracted power outages were only brought up during a consultation with fishermen when the agriculture department's suggestion to build an ice plant in the area was thumbed down by the residents.

(GILMHAR A. LAO & ANNE ACOSTA– MINDANAO EXPOSE’)