The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) have committed to a decisive intervention in Siquijor. This is following prolonged rotational brownouts and operational failures at the island’s lone power generation facility.

During a post-SONA discussion, NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda said that reports of outages from the Siquijor Island Power Corporation (SIPCOR) began as early as January 2025. Despite early efforts by the local electric cooperative PROSIELCO to manage the situation, outages worsened when four out of nine generators failed in mid-May.

To temporarily restore power, NEA arranged for a modular genset from Palawan to be shipped to Siquijor, while SIPCOR brought in a rented generator. These measures temporarily stabilized power supply before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to the island on June 13. However, outages resumed weeks later after four more generators broke down.

DOE Secretary Sharon Garin said the situation had become unacceptable, citing multiple operational lapses, including SIPCOR’s failure to maintain a mandated 10-day fuel supply and expired environmental permits for some gensets. “This is not a political issue, it is a public utility obligation,” she said. She went on to emphasize that the repeated breakdowns forced the government to use public funds to protect Siquijor residents.

Secretary Garin revealed that the DOE and NEA will deploy an independent technical surveyor to assess SIPCOR’s plant viability. Depending on the findings, the government may impose strict conditions or take over if SIPCOR is found unable to meet its contractual obligations.

“Whatever measure we adopt, contractual obligations must give way to the paramount interest of public welfare,” Administrator Almeda said, adding that if SIPCOR fails to comply, “we have to do drastic moves to assure the people of Siquijor that this won’t happen again.”

The DOE also plans to issue a new circular aimed at strengthening enforcement and accountability among private generation companies to avoid similar crises in the future.

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