By ILOILO CITY – The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) – Panay held a forum on the state of the power industry last February 17, 2024 in Iloilo City. The discussion revolved around the reason for the power outage and brownouts experienced in Panay last month, January 2024, and the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA Law.
According to the General Manager of ILECO II, Engr. Jose Redmond Eric Roquiros, there are frequent brownouts because there are not enough plants to generate electricity. He added that the companies in the power industry are privately owned, especially the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines or NGCP, which supplies electricity to the country. In addition, Engr. Roquiros said that the services of these companies are not of high quality because they only focus on profit, which is allowed by the EPIRA Law.
As for Atty. Jobert Pahilga of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, the EPIRA Law was approved in 2001 to supposedly provide quality, reliable, and affordable electricity to the people but the opposite happened. Atty. Pahilga added that the power industry is monopolized by only a few private companies, which led to a shortage in some areas and a high cost of electricity.
Despite more than 20 years since the law was passed, EPIRA’s promise to pay the debt of the National Power Corporation or NAPOCOR was still not fulfilled. Now, this covers 15% of the country’s national debt.
Atty. Pahilga and Engr. Roquiros recommended the scrapping of EPIRA Law and putting the power industry under the government instead of the private sector./PT
