We’ve been called the "Blackout Capital of the Philippines."

Six hour brownouts everyday… for the past 17 years. Just last month, the daily brownouts reached 12 hours in some parts of the province. IMAGINE THAT. This has become a way of life for 453,000 residents of Occidental Mindoro.

At home and in markets, meat, vegetables, dairy products and other produce spoil easily.  Life-saving machinery stop functioning in our hospitals. Brownouts disrupt office and school hours. Students are forced to study using candlelight or gas lamps. For families with loved ones working abroad, they’re hardly able to communicate with each other. It’s dangerous to go out at night because unlit streets have become a hotbed of crime. Our CCTVs have little use because they cannot capture footage in the dark. Tourists have fled our local establishments because they couldn’t stand our powerless province. For households with generator sets, money that could have been spent on basic needs, like food and shelter, is instead used to pay for costly and polluting fuel. This has got to change.

The power shortage is worsened by long legal battles between Occidental Mindoro’s local electric cooperative and Island Power Corporation (IPC). IPC’s power plant started breaking down in 1998. It went on a complete shutdown in 2007. And yet, IPC insists on enforcing its 25-year “exclusive contract.”

This power plant has not been producing a single watt for 8 years. When our electric cooperative tried to invite bidders to address the ensuing power deficit, it was slapped with a temporary restraining order (TRO). Consumers are forced to suffer through the power crisis until the case is resolved OR until the contract expires in 2018, whichever comes sooner. The people of Occidental Mindoro are imprisoned by these so-called legal technicalities. 

We need your help. Access to electricity is a human right and it is has been violated with impunity for the past 17 years in our island province. That is why we are respectfully calling on Department of Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petillla to conduct an investigation and end the culture of impunity that has prevented the residents of Occidental Mindoro from gaining access to stable, renewable, and affordable electricity.

Please sign and share our petition. Please help deliver our message to DOE Secretary Petilla so that he can conduct the Occidental Mindoro probe immediately.