SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, vowed to pursue all possible legal remedies to hold accountable the parties responsible for the continuing power interruptions in many parts of Palawan.
Gatchalian has directed the National Electrification Administration to look into the liabilities of private generation companies and the Palawan Electric Cooperative whose inaction has led to the prolonged power putages which started since January.
He said the most glaring problem that has caused the pwer outages is the failure of the generation companies to deliver on their commitments.
“We can hold these gencos for breach of contract, and the Paleco for possible mismanagement of the utilities,” said Gatchalian during a recent dialog with Palawan power stakeholders.
He stressed that the power supply of Palawan needs to be stabilized “as soon as possible.”
He took to task DMCI Power Corp. for its failure to deliver the 25-megawatt Guaranteed Dependable Capacity in its power supply agreement with Paleco.
The senator also asked NEA to require Paleco to submit a performance report on the three generation firms which have existing power supply agreements with the electric cooperative.
“It is time for NEA to flex its muscles in extracting info from Paleco,” he said.