Miyerkules, Mayo 8, 2013

Groups urge deeper probe on Luzon-wide blackout

By Dennis Carcamo

MANILA, Philippines - Poll watchdog Kontra Daya on Thursday called on Malacañang to order an investigation into the massive power outage that struck Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
"Malacañang should determine the true cause of the outage so that these can be prevented. We are quite concerned with the attitude of the Department of Energy that seeks to downplay the impact of the outage by saying that these things happen frequently," said Kontra Daya convenor Fr. Joe Dizon.
Dizon also called on the Commission on Election to discuss its contingency measures aside from the battery packs attached to the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, which would be used during the May 13 national and local polls.
"It is not enough that PCOS machines have battery packs. What about the entire polling precinct? What about the transmission and canvassing of votes? There are too many variables which cannot be addressed by the PCOS battery pack," Dizon said.
Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said it was too early for the government to immediately rule out sabotage if it has not yet undertaken a thorough probe of the power outage.
"From the reports we have gathered, the reasons for the outage were events external to the power plants. Something happened outside the plants that we are not yet aware of. That this event can affect five plants, through some kind of domino effect, is truly a cause for concern," Reyes said.
"Malacañang should make public a full report within the week, just before the elections. It should refrain from downplaying or trivializing the incident, by saying that these happen all the time, or that these can easily be fixed. We call on the people to be ever vigilant especially in the next few days," he added.
Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said in an interview with ABS-CBN News that the massive power outage that hit Luzon was caused by a technical problem at the Calaca 2 power plant in Batangas.
Petilla said that the Calaca 2 power plant tripped first and then it "cascaded" down to five other plants.
He said that they are now investigating why the Calaca 2 power plant's auto shut off did not work.
He explained that the Calaca 2 power plant should have automatically shut down, which would have activated its back-up generator and could have prevented the massive power outage.
"Yesterday six [plants] shut down because the auto-shut off of a power plant, for some reason, did not work. That is what we are investigating," Petilla said.
The energy secretary had assured that "there is no reason to believe" that Wednesday's massive power outage was “sabotage."
"Rest assured this won't happen on election day," he said.