ILOILO City – Power interruptions, water scarcity, flooding, and the Ungka flyover are among the major concerns in Western Visayas that the Regional Development Council (RDC) seeks to address promptly.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has been invited to the first face-to-face meeting on the region’s power concerns on Thursday, May 11, according to Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas, head of RDC’s Infrastructure and Development Committee (IDC).
Treñas said he is not satisfied with the service of NGCP in Panay and Negros islands. From April 27 to 29, massive power outages hit Western Visayas.
Other key players in the power industry such as the Department of Energy (DOE) and power distributors like the MORE Electric and Power Corporation have been invited to Thursday’s meeting as well.
Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla and NGCP president and chief executive officer Anthony Almeda are expected to attend, too.
On April 27 the NGCP reported having monitored a “system disturbance” which affected the Visayas grid, and that its initial findings showed that a distribution utility-owned line tripped, and caused power plants to disengage from the transmission system.”
Treñas noted that Cebu and Davao do not have prolonged blackouts like what happened in Panay, Negros and Guimaras which lasted several days.
“Why don’t Cebu and Davao have that kind of blackouts? Ang aton naigu ta tatlo ka adlaw. I am going to ask that to NGCP when I see them in a meeting with RDC,” said Treñas.
The city mayor wants transmission lines for Panay and Negros to be at par with those serving Cebu and Davao to avoid more power outages.
The people in Region 6 also want to be comparable to Davao and Cebu when it comes to having “robust” transmission lines so they will not suffer days of power interruptions, he added.
“It appears that the NGCP transmission lines in these two cities are ‘robust’… I ask NGCP then, ‘what will it take you to make our transmission lines in Panay and Guimaras ‘robust’ as to withstand fluctuations in the power supply so that we become as resilient as Cebu and Davao?’” Treñas further said.
Another meeting is scheduled on May 15. Among those that will be tackled are the following:
* status of the Ungka and Aganan flyovers in Pavia, Iloilo
* Jalaur River Multi-purpose Project (JRMP) II in Calinog, Iloilo
* Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project in Capiz
* updates on the maintenance of the aircon and chiller system of the Iloilo International Airport; and
* mitigating measures on El Niño’s impact on water scarcity and agriculture in Western Visayas.
Expected to attend the second meeting are officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) central and Region 6 offices, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture Region 6, JRMP-Project Management Office, National Irrigation Administration Region 6, and Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration – Iloilo City.
Treñas said the recent flooding beneath the Ungka flyover will also be tackled.
The road beneath it experienced flooding during a downpour brought by a low-pressure area and an inter-tropical convergence zone last week.
There were no drainage inlets to drain the floodwaters, according to Engineer Jose Al Fruto, assistant regional director of DPWH-6.
Due to road widening, the drainage inlets of the buried drainage system were no longer aligned and needed adjustments or replacements.
To minimize the knee-deep floodwaters under the flyover, DPWH-6 temporarily deployed a flood-mitigating machine to siphon the water./PN
