After Sunday’s power outage: Mayor’s online team draws flak over post

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – Hours-long power interruption in Panay and Negros islands Sunday caused netizens to let fly and lash out their sentiments.

Others opted to vent out their frustrations and complaints to the “wrong” person, including Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog of this city.

With no answers at hand over the total blackout that engulfed Panay and Negros, netizens posted questions and complaints on Mabilog’s official Facebook page, which now has more than 157,000 followers.

But their complaints apparently did not sit well with those managing Mabilog’s Facebook account.

Before noon of Sunday, Mabilog’s FB page posted a status which read: “Announcement: Please be informed that Mayor Jed Patrick E. Mabilog is not Panay Electric Company. His page has been receiving complaints and inquiries about the brownout. If you need any announcements, please go to their FB Page: Panay Electric and Company. Thank you.”

While the status seemed to inform netizens that PECO could answer their questions, several netizens were irked about the “sarcastic” post.

FB user Maria Nelia commented: “Dear Mayor, we know you are not PECO but we, your constituents, are hoping you could help intervene in this power outage affecting the whole city. PECO has not given any info to us consumers for hours now but maybe, with your powers, they might give you something. Thank you.”

On the other hand, FB user Ryan Herrera said: “Are you sure with this post Mayor? We did not expect you to resolve it yourself. Kung may issue man gid sa source sang kuryente ta sa syudad ti ano abi mahimo namon? We were waiting for you to give us update not sarcastic statements like this.”

Meanwhile, Ian Von Celis commented: “Wrong move from the person who’s managing this page. If his reason for posting this is to defend Mayor Jed. I think he just made it worse. Baka may generator ang taong to kaya wala syang reklamo sa Panay outage. Action plans from the administration should have been posted instead of ranting on the people who don’t have the means to seek help from the mayor’s office...”

Other users lambasted PECO on the comment thread but most pushed for the replacement of Mabilog’s FB page administrator.

It appeared that only FB user Say Dondiego has taken Mabilog’s status lightly, saying, “Let’s just widen our mind. Thankful nalang ni nga may suga kita, what more if totally blackout na gid ang kalibutan?”

As of 10 a.m. Monday, PECO, in its Facebook page, posted the latest update on Sunday’s supply power interruption.

“PEDC’s coal plant went online as of last night at 11:50 p.m., the power in Iloilo City has been stable since 12 midnight. We are sorry for the inconvenience the supply power interruption has caused and we will be posting the official statement coming from Global Business Power as soon as they forward it to PECO.

“The supply power interruption was caused by NGCP’s (transmission lines) fault in Kabankalan, Negros which caused multiple power plants connected to them (including PEDC) to shut down.” –  /JMD