An impending curtailment of electricity had the Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SUKELCO) buy 120,000 liters of diesel fuel for Kalamansig Diesel Power Plant (KDPP) of the National Power Corporation-Small Power Utility Group (NPC-SPUG).

The power plant was set to run out of diesel fuel on 25 August 2022, to affect the whole area of the Municipalities of Kalamansig and Lebak, 11 barangays in Palimbang and two barangays in Esperanza, all in the Province of Sultan Kudarat, and Sitio Guila-guila, Brgy. Kuya in the Municipality of Upi, Maguindanao.

To remedy the situation, SUKELCO General Manager Claudia Pondales sent letters to several government officials asking for intervention between NPC-SPUG and Petron Corporation so as not to disrupt the electricity service in the aforementioned areas. She also called the NPC-SPUG Vice President Larry Sabellina and proposed that SUKELCO will purchase diesel fuel directly from Petron for the NPC-SPUG power plants.

Immediately, the SUKELCO Board of Directors had an emergency meeting and allocated Php 20 million for the purpose. According to SUKELCO Area 3 Manager Francisco Torres, aside from the 120,000 liters of purchased diesel fuel amounting to Php8.153 million which will be a reduction in their power bill from NPC-SPUG, they also requested Petron to reserve another 80,000 liters to ensure the fuel may last long enough until the NPC-SPUG and the national government can find the means to settle the NPC-SPUG’s enormous debt with Petron.

GM Pondales said that as of 30 August 2022, Petron’s delivery to NPC-SPUG returned to normal as per the order of Department of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno. She also mentioned that Sultan Kudarat 2nd District Representative Horacio Suansing, Jr. will conduct an investigation in aid of legislation regarding the matter.###