Lights out! Pinoys in Saipan face power problem

MANILA, Philippines - Like their countrymen, Filipinos — about 16,000 — living in the US territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are also facing “power" problems.

A report from Saipan Tribune says that Saipan — the largest island in the CNMI, and also its capital — will be experiencing “rolling blackouts" from July to August.

According to the report, Antonio S. Muna, executive director of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp (CUC) apologized to the public for making a “too optimistic" statement that power outages would end in June.

Muna reportedly said that at the time he made the announcement, he felt he had reliable basis for his statement. “Based on that information, we felt that by June 30th we would have engines 1 and 7 online."

But after a few weeks, he said the CUC encountered delays in getting parts for the power engines’ maintenance. He said the government expects maintenance work for engine 7 to be completed on July, while engine 1 could be fixed by July 31.

The report said blackout gripped Saipan last Monday, June 2, due to mechanical problems of power engines 3 and 6 at the Lower Base's Power Plant 1. - GMANews.TV

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