WHEN the lights go out, the explanations come on.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) controls manual load shedding. Generators produce the electricity. Distribution utilities deliver it. National agencies regulate the industry. Local governments have limited authority over the entire system.
Everybody has an explanation. Everybody has a jurisdiction. Everybody can point to somebody else.
But who owns the problem?
That is the question increasingly frustrated Ilonggos deserve to have answered as persistent power interruptions disrupt homes, businesses and daily life in Iloilo City and across in Western Visayas.
Residents are no longer satisfied with being told why the lights went out. They want to know what is actually being done to keep them on. One consumer asked the question that should be ringing in the ears of every institution involved: “Ano nga aksyon gina obra? Can we know specific steps?”
There comes a point when explanations begin to sound like excuses. Every player in the electricity chain must be held accountable.
NGCP cannot simply say it is implementing load shedding because supply is inadequate. Generators cannot wash their hands because transmission is somebody else’s business. Distribution utilities cannot be reduced to messengers announcing interruptions. Regulators cannot behave like spectators armed with rulebooks. And government cannot endlessly convene meetings while consumers wait for something tangible to emerge from them.
The public does not care about the bureaucratic choreography of passing responsibility from one desk to another.
People want electricity.
And when electricity cannot be provided reliably, they deserve to know why, what is being done about it, who is responsible for doing it, and when improvement can reasonably be expected.
This is not too much to ask from an industry that collects payment from consumers every month.
Indeed, the imbalance is difficult to ignore. One resident complained why consumers may face surcharges for delayed payments while having little recourse when their electrical equipment is affected by power interruptions.
There lies the bitter irony. When consumers fail to meet their obligations, there are penalties. When the power system fails consumers, there are explanations. That cannot be the permanent arrangement. There must be a public accounting from the institutions responsible for keeping its electricity system functioning.
There may indeed be no instant solution to the wider Visayas power shortage. But accountability requires no new power plant. Transparency and coordination requires no additional generating unit.
When everybody is responsible only for his little piece of the system, there is a grave danger that nobody becomes accountable for the whole.
And when everybody keeps passing the buck, it is the consumer who is left holding the bill — in the dark.
