Wait until 2031?

The FREEMAN reported yesterday on Lapu-Lapu City Rep. Junard “Ahong” Chan’s appeal for urgent action on the frequent power interruptions and high electricity costs in the Visayas. Chan made the call at a joint congressional public hearing last October 3 in Bacolod City which inquired about and sought solutions in the ongoing power crisis in the Visayas.

Chan reportedly expressed frustration with the answers from the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), especially the forecast that consumers would have to wait until 2031 for reliable electricity. That timetable, he said, would leave consumers facing rotating brownouts and steep electricity bills for several more years.

It’s good that a legislator from Cebu has finally had the opportunity to raise the power problems troubling Cebuanos for the past couple of months in a consequential committee hearing. It is unfortunate, though, that Chan had this opportunity only through his membership in the Committee on Visayas Development, which jointly held the hearing, rather than through a seat on the Committee on Energy itself.

I’m surprised that no representative from any of Cebu’s legislative districts sits on a committee as important as the House Committee on Energy, especially since the DOE has noted that Cebu’s power consumption is growing exponentially and far outpacing the expansion of local power infrastructure. I checked the House of Representatives website, and the energy committee’s only member from Cebu is Rep. Sonny Lagon of the AKO BISAYA party-list.

His wife, 6th District Representative Daphne Lagon, filed on September 9, 2026, along with Chan, Eduardo Rama, Jr. (South District, Cebu City), Patricia Calderon (7th District, Cebu) and other Visayas congressmen, a resolution seeking congressional inquiries into recurring brownouts and the charges consumers pay for standby power reserves. At that time, the grid had recorded at least 93 yellow alerts and 30 red alerts.

At the hearing, lawmakers led by House Deputy Speaker Alfredo Abelardo Benitez strongly criticized the DOE for lapses in power planning. They pointed out that while major investments in power generation have been concentrated in Luzon and Mindanao, the Visayas has been left without adequate local baseload capacity.

Garin indeed has a lot of explaining to do. But unfortunately for her, when it comes to brownouts and high electricity rates, no amount of explanation can ease people’s frustration. And unfortunately for the Marcos administration, that frustration will not be directed at Garin alone. It will extend to the administration as a whole, which may critically need support from the Visayas come 2028.

For my part, I place more weight on the results of officials’ actions or inaction than on their explanations or the measures they take. And the results are frustrating. One has to ask: How could past and present officials have allowed this to happen to an economy as large and important as Cebu’s?

“Obviously, this is a failure in planning,” ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said. The DOE should have anticipated these power needs years ago, Tiono said, since drawing up a national energy plan that spreads power generation across the regions is part of its basic job and hardly too much to expect.

Meanwhile, some households, including mine, are trying to achieve partial energy independence through solar power. At the very least, we want to keep essential appliances running during brownouts.

There is also the proposed Sariling Kuryente Act, which seeks to make it easier for households and businesses to generate and store electricity for their own use through rooftop solar panels and battery storage. It is a proposal worth pursuing.