Congratulations to Virac Councilor Rafael C. Zuniega for winning the PCL presidency and the SP seat that goes with it.
He defeated Bato’s Renz Mickenly Tanael by landslide, 79-27.
Other PCL officers chosen during Monday’s polls at the Capitol dome were: Joseph Mendoza of Virac, vice president; Leo Martin Mendoza of San Andres, secretary-general; Fidelito Soledad of Baras, treasurer; Felix Vargas Jr. of Panganiban, auditor; Dennis Pereyra of Bato, PRO; Arnulfo Pongan of Caramoran, business manager; and directors – Maria Eunice Carranza of Baras, Willie Dulay of Viga, Antonio Torrenueva of San Miguel, Jake Tolledo of Gigmoto, John Willy Tabirara of Pandan, Salvacion Isuela of Caramoran, Ely Tasarra of Bato and Edwin de Leon of Bagamanoc
*****
The report that the National Power Corporation has agreed to purchase modular diesel gensets for deployment to Catanduanes is most welcome.
It would take some time due to compliance with procurement procedures.,
It would have been cheaper for Napocor, and faster for Catanduanes power consumers’ sake, if the NPC management just agreed to pay Sunwest Water & Electricity Co. (SUWECO) the subsidies due to it or a portion thereof, for supplying the grid without waiting for clarification from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
The slowness with which the Commission is acting on cases and petitions before it is evidenced by what has happened to the proposal of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to connect the main Luzon power grid to the Catanduanes island grid.
Described as the Camarines Sur-Catanduanes Interconnection Project (CCIP), NGCP filed its application for provisional authority to commence the P9.5 billion project in June 2022.
Three years later, the application remains largely unacted upon by the Commission, despite the Department of Energy’s issuance of Certificate of Energy Projects of National Significance (CEPNS) No. 2025-01-0175 to the project.
The CEPNS designation accelerates approvals for key energy projects which support energy security, fuel economic growth and promote sustainable development.
Probably due to the delay in the regulatory process, NGCP has revised the Estimated Time of Completion of the interconnection project from the previous December 2030 to October 2032, or seven years from now.
*****
If Mr. Uy would ask PLDT WiFi subscribers, they would prefer that the company forthwith go ahead with its plan to connect fiberoptic cables from Albay to Catanduanes.
Despite PLDT’s dominance in majority of the 11 towns, it has yet to deliver reliable service.
For the past week, our service has been marked with unexplained outages, with no announcement of any disruption of service.
WiFi signal would blink out by 5 PM daily and come back the next day at 6 PM or a few hours afterwards.
It seems as if somebody or a computer somewhere is deliberately programming WiFi “brownouts” just like what FICELCO does when SUWECO’s gensets conk out.
Perhaps, Converge could deliver better service or we can just buy a Starlink unit and pay a lot more for reliable internet service.
*****
REASON FOR BEING LATE. A child was late to school for the first time. The teacher asked him if anything was wrong.
“No,” the child said, “I wanted to go fishing, but my dad told me I needed to go to school.”
The teacher was impressed. “And did your father explain why it was important to go to school instead of going fishing?”
The child nodded solemnly and said, “He said it was because there’s not enough bait for both of us.”