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KIDAPAWANCITY (April 11/Wednesday) – The vice mayor here wants to know where the Department of Energy (DoE) gets its data that North Cotabato experiences only one to two hours of rotating brownouts when it suffers power outages of up to six hours.
“Where do they get the data? Who supplied the DoE the data? We, people of North Cotabato, could very well attest that the DoE’s statement is not true. In fact, we do experience daily brownouts from three to four hours, or worst, five to six hours,” said City Vice-Mayor Joseph Evangelista, presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panglungsod ng Kidapawan.
Last week, Evangelista and other officials from North Cotabato met with some DoE officials in Metro Manila to discuss the power situation in Mindanao.
Evangelista also handed to the DoE its resolution urging the national government to put an end to the power crisis.
Early last March, Agham party-list Representative Angelo Palmones also disagreed with pronouncements made by DoE and other national government officials, including President Aquino’s spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda, on the number of rotating brownouts in the region, particularly in North Cotabato.
“I hope Lacierda and other officials from Malacanang stay in Kidapawan City for, say, two to three days, so they could also experience what we’re going through because of the rotating blackouts every day,” said Palmones. (Malu Manar/MindaNews)