By Jess Diaz – With Alexis Romero
From The Philippine Star
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=562362&publicationSubCategoryId=63
MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was urged yesterday to inquire into the continuing power shortage in Mindanao and the Visayas which could have serious implications on the May 10 elections.
Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and Florencio “Bem” Noel of the party-list group An Waray made the appeal as they expressed concern over blackouts that they and their constituents continue to suffer for several hours daily.
Noel, a resident of Tacloban City, said the Leyte and Samar provinces should not be suffering from a power shortage since the geothermal plants in the region are producing enough electricity for residents.
“But we continue to have brownouts and there seems to be no end in sight to this problem. I am afraid that if the crisis persists until May 10, it will seriously affect our country’s first automated election,” he said.
For his part, Speaker Prospero Nograles expressed concern about the possibility of a failure of elections due to the “refusal of the Comelec to cleanse its voters’ list of multiple registrants and dead voters.”
“While such a scenario is remote, the Comelec’s lack of pro-active thinking is very frustrating. It seems we only provided the Comelec billions in funds not to make the elections clean and credible but to make election cheating faster and more efficient,” he said.
Nograles, who is running for mayor of Davao City, has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to cleanse the voters’ list instead of relying on a “watch list” of illegal registrants.
Rodriguez said the Comelec should take a direct hand in looking into the situation since the crisis would certainly affect the balloting process and the canvassing of votes.
“In Cagayan de Oro City, we continue to suffer from daily brownouts lasting up to six hours. It is worse in Zamboanga City and other parts of Mindanao,” he said.
He said concerned executive officials have been talking about taking action on the problem but that all this talk has amounted only to “lip service.”
He added that since Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has resigned to accept the nomination of a party-list group despite questions about his qualification, it is unclear who is now attending to the power crisis.
“If the Comelec has not been alarmed before by the situation, it should now be alarmed because it’s only six weeks to go before the elections,” he stressed.
Rodriguez pointed out that inquiring into the power shortage and looking for solutions to it should also be the concern of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Elections.
“I urge the committee to convene immediately and investigate the continuing power shortage by calling Comelec commissioners and other concerned officials and ask them what have they been doing about the situation,” he said.
Sen. Francis Escudero and Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. jointly chair the committee, of which the Cagayan de Oro City congressman is a member.
“If there is a failure of elections in Mindanao because of power outages, there will be a failure of elections in the entire country because Mindanao has about 12 million votes,” Rodriguez said.
“In fact, a failure does not have to affect all of those 12 million votes. One million or two million votes that could not be canvassed, transmitted or accounted for could result in a total failure, since that number will affect the outcome of the election,” he said.
He decried the “tendency of the Comelec to be complacent and overconfident” by dismissing concerns about a possible failure of elections as “fantasy.”
He reiterated that if the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates cannot be determined and proclaimed, President Arroyo might be forced to hold on to the presidency or the military might keep her in power.
In a related development, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas predicted yesterday that Cebu and Bohol would give Nacionalista Party candidate Sen. Manuel Villar “an extra 1.2 million votes over his closest rival.”
He made the prediction despite the fact that the Garcia clan of Cebu reaffirmed its support last Friday for Lakas-Kampi standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr., even as some of its members met with Villar two days earlier.
The Garcias denied that they were shifting their support to Villar.
DND secretary to meet NDCC in Cebu
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) chairman and Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales will meet with regional disaster officials today in Cebu to discuss ways to prevent power outages during the May 10 elections.
The NDCC, in its first national meeting on the power crisis, will specifically tackle a proposal to lease generators from the private sector and to place them in every precinct cluster.
“Making an inventory of the current available generators in the country will be a major subject in the meeting,” Gonzales said in a statement yesterday.
“We will be asking our people who have generators to register their generators with the NDCC so we can use them during the elections,” he added.
Gonzales said while the Comelec has acquired backup generators, it is still necessary to come up with a contingency plan.
“We cannot afford to have a failure of election,” he said.
Gonzales said they will also discuss measures to ensure enough power supply in Mindanao from May 8 to May 12. He said releases from Lake Lanao, a major source of hydroelectric power in Mindanao, are being managed to prevent blackouts.
On March 11, President Arroyo declared a state of calamity in Mindanao in the light of a power shortage that is disrupting the economic activities in the South.
The President made the declaration upon the recommendation of the NDCC and the Energy department, which admitted that the problem could affect the country’s growth prospects. Such declaration would facilitate the release of calamity funds that can be used to address the problem.
Weeks have passed since the declaration was made yet officials have not finalized plans to resolve the power lack.
From The Philippine Star
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=562362&publicationSubCategoryId=63
MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was urged yesterday to inquire into the continuing power shortage in Mindanao and the Visayas which could have serious implications on the May 10 elections.
Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and Florencio “Bem” Noel of the party-list group An Waray made the appeal as they expressed concern over blackouts that they and their constituents continue to suffer for several hours daily.
Noel, a resident of Tacloban City, said the Leyte and Samar provinces should not be suffering from a power shortage since the geothermal plants in the region are producing enough electricity for residents.
“But we continue to have brownouts and there seems to be no end in sight to this problem. I am afraid that if the crisis persists until May 10, it will seriously affect our country’s first automated election,” he said.
For his part, Speaker Prospero Nograles expressed concern about the possibility of a failure of elections due to the “refusal of the Comelec to cleanse its voters’ list of multiple registrants and dead voters.”
“While such a scenario is remote, the Comelec’s lack of pro-active thinking is very frustrating. It seems we only provided the Comelec billions in funds not to make the elections clean and credible but to make election cheating faster and more efficient,” he said.
Nograles, who is running for mayor of Davao City, has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to cleanse the voters’ list instead of relying on a “watch list” of illegal registrants.
Rodriguez said the Comelec should take a direct hand in looking into the situation since the crisis would certainly affect the balloting process and the canvassing of votes.
“In Cagayan de Oro City, we continue to suffer from daily brownouts lasting up to six hours. It is worse in Zamboanga City and other parts of Mindanao,” he said.
He said concerned executive officials have been talking about taking action on the problem but that all this talk has amounted only to “lip service.”
He added that since Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has resigned to accept the nomination of a party-list group despite questions about his qualification, it is unclear who is now attending to the power crisis.
“If the Comelec has not been alarmed before by the situation, it should now be alarmed because it’s only six weeks to go before the elections,” he stressed.
Rodriguez pointed out that inquiring into the power shortage and looking for solutions to it should also be the concern of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Elections.
“I urge the committee to convene immediately and investigate the continuing power shortage by calling Comelec commissioners and other concerned officials and ask them what have they been doing about the situation,” he said.
Sen. Francis Escudero and Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. jointly chair the committee, of which the Cagayan de Oro City congressman is a member.
“If there is a failure of elections in Mindanao because of power outages, there will be a failure of elections in the entire country because Mindanao has about 12 million votes,” Rodriguez said.
“In fact, a failure does not have to affect all of those 12 million votes. One million or two million votes that could not be canvassed, transmitted or accounted for could result in a total failure, since that number will affect the outcome of the election,” he said.
He decried the “tendency of the Comelec to be complacent and overconfident” by dismissing concerns about a possible failure of elections as “fantasy.”
He reiterated that if the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates cannot be determined and proclaimed, President Arroyo might be forced to hold on to the presidency or the military might keep her in power.
In a related development, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas predicted yesterday that Cebu and Bohol would give Nacionalista Party candidate Sen. Manuel Villar “an extra 1.2 million votes over his closest rival.”
He made the prediction despite the fact that the Garcia clan of Cebu reaffirmed its support last Friday for Lakas-Kampi standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr., even as some of its members met with Villar two days earlier.
The Garcias denied that they were shifting their support to Villar.
DND secretary to meet NDCC in Cebu
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) chairman and Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales will meet with regional disaster officials today in Cebu to discuss ways to prevent power outages during the May 10 elections.
The NDCC, in its first national meeting on the power crisis, will specifically tackle a proposal to lease generators from the private sector and to place them in every precinct cluster.
“Making an inventory of the current available generators in the country will be a major subject in the meeting,” Gonzales said in a statement yesterday.
“We will be asking our people who have generators to register their generators with the NDCC so we can use them during the elections,” he added.
Gonzales said while the Comelec has acquired backup generators, it is still necessary to come up with a contingency plan.
“We cannot afford to have a failure of election,” he said.
Gonzales said they will also discuss measures to ensure enough power supply in Mindanao from May 8 to May 12. He said releases from Lake Lanao, a major source of hydroelectric power in Mindanao, are being managed to prevent blackouts.
On March 11, President Arroyo declared a state of calamity in Mindanao in the light of a power shortage that is disrupting the economic activities in the South.
The President made the declaration upon the recommendation of the NDCC and the Energy department, which admitted that the problem could affect the country’s growth prospects. Such declaration would facilitate the release of calamity funds that can be used to address the problem.
Weeks have passed since the declaration was made yet officials have not finalized plans to resolve the power lack.
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