There will be no power outages on election day – DOE

THERE will be enough power supply during next month’s Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, the Department of Energy (DOE) has assured.

Engr. Rey Maleza, head of the energy industry management division of the DOE-Visayas Field Office, said that despite the yellow alert status of the power supply at noon and in the evening, it will not have any effect during election day, May 14.

“We have been meeting with the Comelec (Commission on Elections) and PNP (Philippine National Police). So far, we are assuring the Comelec that we have stable and continuous supply during the May elections,” he said.

A yellow alert means the reserve level in the grid has gone below the required contingency reserve. The contingency reserve is equivalent to the capacity of the largest generating unit in the grid which is 150-megawatts (MW) in the Visayas grid.

It is usually declared during the summer months when demand for power increase due to the hot weather and more people are staying at home and using power since children are on vacation from school.

Maleza said the Visayas grid has also been receiving augmentation from the Luzon grid as a countermeasure.

At the same time, Maleza said they are coordinating with distribution units all over the province as well as the National Grid Corporation Corp.(NGCP) to make sure there is stable supply.

While power supply may be stable, he stressed that there may be unforseen incidents that may cause power interruption. Nonetheless, he said, they have put in place contingency measures in case this happens.

The DOE will also be issuing a directive to all power plants in the Visayas to hold off any preventive maintenance servicing (PMS) in the days leading to the election as well as afterwards, especially during the counting of votes.

Security augmentation

Meanwhile, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has expressed willingness to deploy some of their personnel to areas in the province during election day, if necessary.

Senior Supt. Joel Doria, CCPO director, said that providing augmentation to the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) will not be a problem since there are no identified election hotspots in Cebu City.

Doria pointed out though that they will only provide augmentation when the CPPO will formally request for it. As to the number of police personnel they can deploy, he said it will still depend on their own deployment in Cebu City.

Earlier this week, CPPO Director Senior Supt. Edgar Alan Okubo said the province needs more police personnel for the coming elections.

The CPPO currently has 1,400 personnel. Of the number, only around 900 will be deployed during the elections while the remaining 500 will stay in the offices.

Okubo said that based on their initial inventory, the CPPO would need 700 more personnel to be deployed during the elections.

The CPPO has identified the northwestern town of Tuburan and the northern town of Daanbantayan as areas of concern.

“We will be needing augmentations from different PNP units gaya ng (like) RMFB-7 (Regional Mobile Force Batallion. Possibly Cebu City and Mandaue City will help also. Depends lang sa guidance ng Regional Director,” Okubo said.

Election schedule

Based on the calendar of activities of the Comelec, the election period started on April 14 and will end on May 21, or seven days after the election day which is on May 14.

Today, April 26, is the last day for filing of petitions for disqualification against barangy and SK candidates, according to the Comelec.

Comelec Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano said those who want to file petitions for disqualification against candidates can do so in their respective municipal or city election offices or directly to the clerk of the Comelec central office in Manila.

He stressed though that going to the central office will be faster compared to submitting it to the local election offices where it will have to go through a long process.

Complainants will have to pay at least P10,000 as filing fee and P100 for legal research fee.

Candidates can file a complaint against fellow candidates for the same spot in the same local government whom they consider as nuisance.

Any registered voter can also file a petition against candidates who may have deficiencies in their qualifications as long as the voter is registered in the same local government where the candidate is running.

As for the SK, any voter in the same local government can file a petition against candidates whom they find to have deficiencies. Candidates for SK posts are not allowed to have any relatives within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity who are holding public posts in the barangay, municipal, city, provincial, regional and national level.

The campaign period for the barangay and SK elections is between May 4 to 12.