BARMM, NGCP address power woes

POWER WOES ---  BARMM Environment Minister Abdulrauf Macacua (extreme left) and BARMM Parliament Member Tocao Mastura meet with NGCP officials Mendelson E. Saludo, right-of-way officer (inner right) and Fermin T. Manos, Transformer Line supervisor (extreme  right) on how to improve power supply in Maguindanao. The NGCP officials promised to solve the problem with the purchase of power supplies to improve the agency’s services in the province. (PHOTO COURTESY OF MENRE-BARMM / MINDANAO EXPOSE’) 

COTABATO CITY --- Officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Thursday (October 17) met with officials of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to help find solutions to the nagging problem of lack or inadequate supply of electricity in several Maguindanao towns.

BARMM Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy (MENRE) Abdulrauf Macacua called for the meeting.

Macacua, together with BARMM Parliament Member Tocao Mastura met with NGCP’s Mendelson E. Saludo, right-of-way officer, and Fermin T. Manos, transformer line supervisor at the MENRE-BARMM office.

Macacua said the local governments of Sultan Kudarat, Sultan Mastura, Parang, Matanog, Barira, and Buldon, all in Maguindanao’s first district and known as “Iranun area,” have sought BARMM’s help on remedies to maintain an adequate supply of electricity.

NGCP officials disclosed during the meeting that the outages experienced by the power consumers in the six towns were due to the company's sub-station repairs.

They assured Macacua and BARMM’s leaders that there would be no rotational blackouts as they would purchase power supplies to better serve their customers soon.

Macacua lauded the NGCP for its efforts to ensure that consumers in the Iranun area would experience an uninterrupted power supply from the NGCP through the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative,  the distribution utility that services Maguindanao province. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA - Cotabato)