* Consumer groups led by the Power for People Coalition called for Energy Secretary Sharon Garin's resignation and an investigation into power generators amid recurring Visayas grid red and yellow alerts.
* Representative Karen Hope Garcia filed a House resolution seeking an inquiry into power plant outages, while groups questioned if utilities relying on WESM expose consumers to higher electricity prices.
* The Department of Energy is working to restore offline generating units and add 253 megawatts of ancillary capacity, while the ERC introduced regional secondary price caps to limit price spikes.
CONSUMER and civil society groups led by the Power for People Coalition (P4P) on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, called for the resignation of Energy Secretary Sharon Garin and an investigation into whether power generators breached their supply contracts as the Visayas grid again faced red and yellow alerts.
The groups said the grid had recorded 43 red-alert days and 107 yellow-alert days since May, resulting in repeated supply shortages and higher electricity costs. Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian cited different figures in an earlier report, saying the grid recorded 33 red-alert days and 96 yellow-alert days between Jan. 1 and Sept. 7.
The call came as private generation companies worked to restore offline power plants, including Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) and Panay Energy Development Corp. The Department of Energy (DOE) said the possible return of these units in September and October would restore grid capacity and reduce the risk of recurring alerts.
Contract obligations
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino President Luke Espiritu said generators should be responsible for securing replacement power when they fail to deliver electricity covered by their supply contracts.
“Kung wala kayong supply of electricity, bumili kayo ng electricity (If you don’t have a supply of electricity),” he said. “Obligasyon ninyo na i-provide yung kinontrata ninyo (It is your obligation to provide what is stated in your contract).”
He said utilities are forced to buy from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the centralized trading venue for buying and selling electricity, when contracted supply is unavailable, exposing consumers to higher prices.
Espiritu also questioned the prolonged outage of TVI units and whether the situation could benefit companies selling electricity through WESM.
“Sino ang nagbebenta sa WESM? Si Aboitiz din (Who is selling in WESM? Aboitiz too)!” he said.
TVI, a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp., operates TVI 1 and 2 in Toledo City.
Espiritu raised the possibility of “budol-budol (scam),” “modus (modus operandi),” “fraud” or “price manipulation,” but said these should be investigated rather than presumed to have occurred.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has imposed a regional secondary price cap for the Visayas and Mindanao grids, retroactive to the August 2026 billing period, to temper power-price spikes.
Probe sought
Cebu Third District Rep. Karen Hope Garcia filed a House resolution on Sept. 9 seeking an urgent inquiry into the recurring Visayas outages, including generation failures, transmission constraints and their effects on electricity prices and consumers.
The resolution calls for an examination of officials and industry players, including the DOE, ERC, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and major generation and distribution utilities.
P4P also questioned why some generating units had remained offline for months.
“Limang buwan? ’Di ba ikaw ang regulator, ikaw dapat ang nagmo-monitor niyan (Five months? Aren’t you the regulator? You should be the one monitoring that),” Espiritu said.
The groups called for an investigation into whether the outages violated contractual or regulatory requirements and whether penalties should be imposed.
Bishop Gerardo “Gerry” Alminaza, president of Caritas Philippines, said electricity is an essential public service and called for greater use of distributed renewable energy.
“We need an energy system that is affordable, reliable, renewable, and resilient,” he said. “It must be power for the people, not power over the people.”
Reforms
P4P campaigner Krishna Ariola said the coalition was pushing for amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 to strengthen consumer protection and overhaul rules governing the power sector amid recurring outages and high electricity costs.
The DOE said it was working to restore generating units, address transmission constraints and prepare 253 megawatts of additional ancillary-service capacity, including battery storage projects in Cebu, Leyte, Negros, Bohol and Panay.
It also plans to add 135 megawatts of generation capacity in Panay by 2028, 270 megawatts in 2029 and another 150 megawatts in 2030.
The P4P-led groups said restoring supply should be accompanied by investigations into plant outages, enforcement of supply contracts and stronger protection for consumers exposed to higher WESM prices. / CDF