President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Sunday said the national government will step in to augment efforts in addressing the power outages in Negros and Panay caused by a problem in the distribution system.

“Ang nagkaka-problema ngayon are Negros and Panay Islands. The irony is Negros actually has a surplus of power supply. The reason na nagkaka-brownout is because sa distribution system sa high tension wire… So that’s what we will have to look into,” the President said in an interview with the media onboard Flight PR 001.

According to reports, the islands of Guimaras, Panay, and Negros experienced a series of power outages last week.

“Kung hindi kaya ng mga gumagawa, maybe the government na lang will be the one,” he said.

“We’ll augment. Ganun na lang. Kasi kulang eh.”

Further, the chief executive said the government is trying to manage both the country’s water and power consumption.

“The power outages, well talagang it’s a consequence of the weather at napaka-init. We are now trying to control or trying to manage rather our water consumption, our power consumption because that’s very closely related,” he said.

The Marcos administration earlier swiftly acted on the power crisis in Occidental Mindoro with the operation of at least three power stations to provide 24-hour electricity power service in the province.

In a report to Malacanang on April 28, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) said NEA chief Antonio Mariano Almeda met with Luis Manuel Banzon, the owner of the Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corporation (OMCPC), last April 27 to discuss the possible measures to remedy the current power crisis.

During the meeting, the two parties agreed to run the three power stations of OMCPC to address the current power supply concerns of the province. (PND)