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GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 24 Aug) – Power blackouts loom in parts of Sultan Kudarat and Basilan unless the National Power Corporation-Small Power Utilities Group (Napocor-SPUG) settles its fuel bills with oil firm Petron Corporation.
SPUG is an entity serving the power needs of areas outside of the main power grid in the island. The towns of Kalamansig and Lebak in Sultan Kudarat province are expected to plunge into darkness by Thursday, August 25, when the firm begins to run out of fuel for its diesel-fed power plants and barges in Mindanao. Napocor-SPUG’s diesel supply has not been replenished in recent days after Petron stopped deliveries to the power firm due to unpaid balance amounting to a whopping P1.2 billion. Already, tens of thousands of residents in the coastal towns of Kalamansig and Lebak in Sultan Kudarat province had a taste of the outage on Tuesday when electricity went off at 8 a.m. and restored 12 hours later. The same 12-hour outage takes into effect Wednesday. Napocor- SPUG vice president Larry Sabellina said the move was necessary to stretch the use of remaining fuel which is expected to run out on Thursday. All six diesel engines of Napocor-SPUG’s power plant in Kalamansig will be shut down at noon of that day. Also to be affected by a similar situation is the island province of Basilan which is also served by a diesel-fed plant and a power barge. The Napocor facilities in Basilan are expected to run out of diesel on August 29, Sabellina said. The SPUG official has instructed managers to come up with a power load shedding scheme in Basilan ahead of the anticipated exhaustion of diesel fuel for the power plants in that island of 11 towns and two cities – Isabela and Lamitan. In a memorandum to Napocor managers, Sabillena bared that in their talks with Petron executives on Monday, the oil firm refused to budge and were firm in their previous position of “putting on hold deliveries to Napocor SPUG plants in Mindanao and Luzon until the bill is settled.” The SPUG plant superintendent in Kalamansig also reported that Petron, through its depot in Bawing, General Santos City, informed them that their fuel allocation has been put on hold until such time that they can pay their obligation. Such development prompted Napocor to inform the Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative (Sukelco), its main client, about the need to “immediately implement” a power curtailment scheme. Sukelco Area 3 manager Francisco Torres, in turn, informed their member-consumers in Kalamansig and Lebak about the power situation. The situation raised the alarm among officials and residents on the possible effect of the looming lack electricity to the business and economy in the two towns which have a combined estimated population of 140,000. Sukelco manager Claudia Pondales had a meeting with local leaders who agreed that they will take the matter with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and seek his intervention. Pondales, in her letter, told the President that Napocor-SPUG’s Sabillena and Petron’s Ramon Ang failed to come into terms and that Petron insisted for full payment of the P1.2 billion and refused to accept an offer by SPUG to pay an initial P250 million. Pondales said that “if the concern is not urgently addressed,” a shutdown of the power plant will create chaos and panic to residents of Kalamansig and Lebak, similar to what happened in 2008.” That year, she said, plant personnel were harassed and harmed even inside plant premises. It already happened four times, she said. Many residents in the two towns are also wondering how the P1.2 billion ballooned into such an amount. Malacañang has yet to respond to the request of the Sukelco general manager. (Rommel G. Rebollido / MindaNews)