The blackout last week earned the ire and disappointment of almost everybody in Iloilo City. Everywhere you go you will hear people throw verbal expletives against Panay Electric Co. (PECO).

The Iloilo City Government likewise complained of the blackout after the business sector declared loses estimated at P3 million. So it is really different when the business sector speaks up compared to the thousands of ordinary residential consumers who also complain about PECO's poor service.

Although an unfortunate event, the blackout episode in Iloilo City is parallel to what's unfolding in the Mindanao region – rotating blackout. The actual scenario, however, is not as severe unlike what has been played up in the media by power industry brokers and the Aquino government.

The testimonies of Mindanao electricity consumers revealed that the power blackout was a big drama because not all of the cities suffer from power blackout simultaneously.

These bared that the politicians and power industry brokers in Minadanao have adopted the script that was successfully utilized five years ago in the Visayas by their partners. So we hear the line, "I inherited this problem from the previous administration" from Mr. Matuwid na Daan.

So nothing much has changed and the "copy-paste attitude" by Presidents can help explain why we are not expecting substantial interventions from the current administration regarding the power problem. If this is happening in the national level, what more can we expect in the local level when what we have is nothing but a reshuffling of position?

Now, what makes these events related to Iloilo City's blackout? This is like turning back the clock for the same script played up in Luzon, then Visayas, and now Mindanao. Just a click on the search engine on the internet and the power crisis chorus line of the Iloilo City politicians will refresh us.

First, the power crisis scenario building and mental conditioning in Mindanao is a tactic successfully experimented by power industry brokers and its allies in local politics in Iloilo. Second, the solutions being pushed in Mindanao are similar to those that were rammed down the throats of the Ilonggos by the same players. Third, the worry expressed by Mindanao electricity consumers like high rates and inefficiency issues of distribution utilities is continuously unfolding in Iloilo City.

Not much has been spoken about the concerns of those who cannot afford electricity service. Nobody listened to people wallow in darkness in spite of Iloilo City's claim of being a modern city. We are just temporarily reminded about the significance of access to electricity once an entire village is razed in fire from a single candlelight.

As people, nobody really minded the expensive cost of electricity or the abuses of PECO. Many will not mind if PECO is robbing its consumers 24 hours a day by the exorbitant cost of electricity they are charging or by the many unfair practices that the company is doing to consumers including power interruption. What the majority of people say is this: we want continued and uninterrupted electricity service at whatever cost, period. So the owners of PECO are happy for they are aware that negative sentiments against their abuses can be calculated and only work like a pendulum.

Yet last week we were reminded about electricity as an essential need after the entire city plunged into hours of blackout.

The complaints, however, are slowly diminished when electricity service is back on stream again. But it is only a matter of time that life in Iloilo City will again be put on halt by another blackout. I'll discuss more of this issue in my next column. (To be continued)