San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said opposition to coal and liquefied natural gas projects should not be blamed for the Visayas power crisis, calling instead for greater scrutiny of repeated plant outages, electricity costs and government energy planning.
In a statement on Oct. 9, Alminaza said reliable electricity should be treated as an essential public service and called for transparency in power ownership, contracts and regulation.
The bishop issued the statement following the Oct. 3 joint congressional hearing in Bacolod City on the recurring power problems affecting the Visayas.
The House committees on Energy, Visayas Development and Legislative Franchises convened the hearing to examine generation and transmission problems, recurring supply interruptions and their impact on households and businesses.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin told lawmakers that battery energy storage and power barges are among the immediate measures being pursued while longer-term solutions are expected beginning in 2028.
Alminaza said blaming the Church for opposing proposed coal and LNG facilities distracts from questions surrounding the reliability of existing generating plants.
Citing data presented by the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development, the bishop said the Visayas grid recorded 160 yellow and red alerts from January to September.
The statement said Therma Visayas Inc. Unit 1 was cited in 117 alerts, TVI Unit 2 in 98, Panay Energy Development Corp. in 80, and Cebu Energy Development Corp. in 13.
The figures may overlap because the same generating unit could be unavailable during several grid alerts, it noted.
CEED had earlier released the same figures in calling for accountability over recurring coal plant outages.
Government regulators have also acknowledged outages at major Visayas power plants.
The Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy conducted joint inspections in September of PEDC Unit 3 in Iloilo and TVI Units 1 and 2 in Cebu following red and yellow alerts attributed to low available generation capacity.
The ERC said the inspections were conducted to determine the operational condition of the plants, validate the circumstances of their outages and monitor repair and restoration activities.
Alminaza also raised concerns over the cost impact on consumers.
His statement, citing CEED figures, said the average Visayas spot-market rate increased from P5.22 per kilowatt-hour before the power alerts in May to P11.58/kWh afterward, while the highest reported WESM settlement rate for coal in the Visayas from May to July reached P45.63/kWh.
He called for transparent investigation of outages and electricity costs, saying consumers should not carry the burden of unreliable service.
The bishop also challenged the view that addressing the lack of “baseload” generation necessarily requires new coal facilities.
“Baseload describes a level of electricity demand,” the statement said, adding that an electricity system also requires reserves, flexible generation, storage and sufficient transmission capacity.
Alminaza reiterated support for Negros Occidental’s coal-free policy, saying it resulted from years of advocacy by communities, youth, women, environmental organizations and faith-based groups.
Then governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. issued Executive Order No. 19-08 in March 2019 declaring Negros Occidental a source of clean and renewable energy and opposing the establishment of coal-fired power plants in the province.
Alminaza also welcomed Garin’s assurance during the Oct. 3 hearing that the government has no plans to establish a coal-fired power plant in Negros.
Garin said the DOE had taken into consideration Negros Occidental’s opposition to coal-fired generation.
The bishop said Negros Occidental should instead continue implementing its SecuRE Negros Energy Development Roadmap, which seeks reliable, renewable, affordable, available, accessible and sustainable energy by 2030.
The provincial roadmap was developed as a strategy for energy security while accelerating locally generated renewable energy and distributed energy systems.
Alminaza called for the publication of plant-level outage and repair information, stronger reliability standards, protection of consumers from unjust costs, improvements to the power grid and expanded renewable energy paired with properly sized storage.
He also sought greater participation from utilities, businesses, workers, consumers, communities and civil society in developing a funded energy plan with measurable targets and public reporting.
“The choice should not be between coal and brownouts,” Alminaza said, urging authorities to address the causes of the supply problem while maintaining Negros’ coal-free direction.*
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