MANILA – Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.  said yesterday that Malacañang will continue to coordinate with the leaders of Congress to address the looming power shortage next year.

”What is important is to make sure that our people and businesses will not be affected if we will have power shortage in the summer of 2015,” Coloma said.

In a recent FOCAP forum, President Benigno Aquino III said the impending power crisis might affect the gross domestic product (GDP) by P9 to P23 billion.

”The effect on the economy will depend on hours of brownout. We don’t want that happen in the summer of 2015,” Coloma said.

Malacanang has asked both the Senate and House of Representatives to approve a joint resolution granting President Aquino an authority to acquire additional generating sets amid the impending power crisis next year.

In the Senate, energy committee chairman Serge Osmena III said he is not inclined to grant the President emergency powers but suggested to use interruptible load program (ILP) which can raise as much as 1,000 megawatt supply for next year.

Osmena said he will recommend to the committee to grant President Aquino authority to allow the use of P1 billion as subsidy for the companies while participating in the ILP.

The Department of Energy is expecting at least 300megawatt deficit in the Luzon grind next year.*PNA

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