PCCI-Aklan Appeal for Reliable, Consistent, Accessible, and Affordable Power Supply

The prolonged power-outages hitting Panay Island to which include the province of Aklan has severely affected the public.Our trade, employees and families have suffered sacrifices, especially to our senior citizens and some with co-morbidities.

The intense heat agonizing with heat index reaching over 40 Degrees Celsius, which is hazardous to health, especially now that PAGASA has declared a prolonged El Nino phenomenon especially affecting the Western Visayas region.

Our businesses has also affected as the power interruptions and the Manual Load Dropping undertaken in several towns to which include Boracay Island, has forced many shops and small and medium enterprises to temporarily closed early, thus affecting not only the economically struggling business owners but also their employees as well.

Exasperating the situation was the lack of proper advance information as to the real causes of simultaneous shutdowns of different power plants in Panay. The conflicting statements from the companies representing power generation, transmission and distribution left us all in the quandary as to the real reasons behind the incident.

It could be noted that similar situations happened in April 2023.

It is sad to note that such a situation happened just as the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) reported that Aklan was recorded as the fastest growing economy among 8 provinces and Highly Urbanized Cities in Western Visayas. Aklan Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 63.57 billion pesos in 2022, posting 22.5 percent growth from 51.9 billion pesos in the past year.

Also, the PSA said that The employment rate of Aklan rose to 93.1 percent in 2022 from 89.3 percent a year ago based on the latest employment data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority. This translates to about 242, 648 employed persons, higher by 5, 046 compared to 2021 data of 237, 602.

Thus, the PCCI-Aklan urged our provincial government and congressional district officials for a meaningful dialogue with the stakeholders to include the National Grid Corporations of the Philippines, the Department of Energy and the Aklan Electric Cooperative, civic leaders and consumers.

By bringing all the stakeholders together, we can all understand the real situations and the major causes behind the power interruptions and all together look further into sustainable action plans and solutions to ensure not only the prevention of such power interruptions, but more importantly, to provide consistent, reliable, accessible, and affordable power supply for the province, especially in the light of further challenges to our energy sector with the threats of the El Nino phenomenon.