Roberto Montelibano, president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, yesterday insisted that the power shortage in Western Visayas is not only in Panay, it is also in Negros Occidental.

Montelibano was reacting to the report that President Gloria Arroyo said the shortage is only in Panay.

“We are part of the Cebu, Negros and Panay grid and Negros and Panay have been suffering from shortages of power,” he said.

That is why business groups met recently with Negros Occidental  Governor Isidro Zayco to ask him to request for a power barge from the president to mitigate the frequent brownouts hitting the province, Montelibano  said.

Negros is at a critical point because it has no more reserve power, he said.

Any little repairs at the existing power plants and we in Negros suffer from a shortage, he said, noting the near daily brownouts that have hit the CENECO coverage area.

“We need to have a 23 percent power reserve,” Montelibano said.

CENECO has entered into a contract to buy coal power from Cebu that has been opposed by various groups advocating the use of green sources of energy.

INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION ONLY

Meanwhile, Arroyo while in Panglao Island Resort in Bohol late Tuesday told reporters she did not scold Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes on his report on the Visayas Power situation at a Cabinet meeting there, she merely engaged him in an "intellectual discussion".

The reporters covering the Cabinet meeting reported that she had scolded him.

Reyes, in his report at a National Economic and Development Authority Cabinet group meeting reportedly said that there was need to "avert a power supply shortage" in Cebu, Negros, and Panay Islands, but the president clarified that it is only in Panay where there is a power shortage.

She pointed out that what was needed in the other areas was a power buffer stock.*CPG

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