By LITO RULONA
Correspondent
A FORMER Energy secretary over the weekend dismissed reports that the bombings of power transmission lines in Mindanao were part of a “no election” scenario.
Carlos Jericho Petilla told reporters here that he suspected that the bombings were related to the demand of some landowners to be paid for the use of their properties as tower sites.
Petilla said the solution would be to give reasonable compensations to the landowners.
He also said the public should not be worry that the power crisis and the bombings would result in a failure of elections, saying “it is far from reality.”
“That’s not true. That’s a lie. You see, the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines can run for 20 hours even without electricity,” he said.
Petilla said Mindanao has already been experiencing a power crisis even before he became the energy secretary in 2012.
Before he resigned, he said, several power generation plants were already being constructed. The new plants would supply Mindanao with enough power by 2017.
Petilla also forecast that Mindanao would have an oversupply of power starting from the last quarter of this year and to early 2017 because of new power plants in Davao and Misamis Oriental.
“Pero dili gihapon kaabot sa hilit nga bahin kay naa pa’y namomba. These areas where bombings of transmission lines are happening will be left out if the bombings will continue,” he said.
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