“It’s becoming more obvious now. Even with the drought caused by El Niño, the power crisis in Mindanao could have been avoided if only the Arroyo administration had not ignored the needs of the region,” NP-NPC-LDP vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda said on Friday during a break in her campaigning in Mait, Davao Oriental.

Legarda issued the statement after consulting with local officials on the issue as she and running mate Manny Villar went on their Mindanao campaign trail.

Two articles posted at the MindaNews website on the Mindanao power crisis also caught her attention.

One, titled “GMA told: Use power barges, diesel plant to help ease power crisis,” revealed that the Arroyo administration had not ordered long overdue repair work on several power generation facilities.

The report quotes Juancho Chiong of the Bukidnon Second Electric Cooperative (BUSECO) as saying: “How come they dragged on this maintenance work? If only they did this before, this (power crisis) could have been avoided.”

A day earlier Legarda pointed to another MindaNews story quoting former National Power Corp. president Guido Delgado as saying: “It is impossible for the administration not to have foreseen the situation.”

The article was written by Carolyn Arguillas and titled “Mindanao’s power shortage: foreseen but ignored?”.

In reaction, Legarda said: “El Niño seems to be a most convenient scapegoat and whipping boy of the Arroyo administration to cover up for its lack of foresight, which resulted in the current power crisis in Mindanao.”

What struck Legarda about the article was that the NPC chief predicted 10 years ago that Mindanao might run short of power.

That’s was why Delgado, 1992 TOYM Awardee for Development Banking, signed an agreement to have the 200-megawatt STEAG plant, three days before he retired.

“Instead of being praised for it, he was suspected of having entered into a ‘midnight deal,’” Legarda said. “It was during that time that Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the office of the president. Now they’re putting all the blame on El Niño, and even Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said: ‘If you want to blame anybody, blame God.’ That’s pathetic. While El Niño might have aggravated a lot of problems, the government could have done something about them.”