Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) senatorial candidate Joey de Venecia warned the administration against exploiting its belated declaration of a state of calamity in Mindanao to justify the acquisition of overpriced stop-gap power generating sets, even as he lamented the coming regime of high power rates in the island due to the government's “inexcusable failure to put in the required base load capacity.”

De Venecia said the Arroyo administration should have an accelerated but transparent bidding process to invite the widest selection of foreign and local suppliers for the needed emergency generating sets, instead of resorting to negotiated contracts with a choice few companies relying on their closeness to Palace officials.

“Otherwise, favored suppliers of high capacity gensets short-listed by Palace insiders will just pay up the SOPs (illegal commissions) they will need to shell out for cornering the emergency power assets deals,” the opposition senatorial candidate said.

De Venecia noted how Mindanaoans are “angry and disgusted over how the Arroyo administration had foreseen the problem but ignored it.”

De Venecia pointed out that “even Guido Delgado, president of the National Power Corporation from 1994 to 1998, has been warning about the emerging power problems in Mindanao at the time Arroyo took power so it is incorrect for the outgoing administration to blame the El Niño phenomenon as excuse for the power emergency.”

“Even her top Mindanao adviser, Secretary Jesus Dureza, has said hydroelectric generation plants only accounted for 19 percent of Mindanao’s power mix in 2009,” De Venecia said.

De Venecia recalled that as recently as February 25, Dureza told Mindanao’s power industry stakeholders that the situation was “far from being a crisis level.”

The opposition senatorial bet said “this government really failed to put in place the required power capacity. There was no El Niño episode last year. It is impossible for the administration not to have foreseen the situation.” (With a report from Dexter A. See)