AS the senatorial election for the May 13, 2013 comes near, the “campaign feud” between Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri heated up when the former chided the UNA candidate for failing to anticipate and do something to solve the power crisis in Mindanao.
“Mr. Zubiri used up four years of my term as senator without even lifting a finger to solve the power shortfall in Mindanao,” Pimentel charged.
“With yet another round of power shortages about to hit large parts of Mindanao, Zubiri promises voters that he would solve the power crisis. But he is simply not credible as he ignored the signs of the looming power crisis while he sat in the Senate on an illegitimate mandate,” the Mindanao lawmaker pointed out.
“Zubiri is in the same league as traditional politicians who promise the electorate the moon and the stars during an election campaign but conveniently forget all the pledges they made once they are already in office,” Pimentel said.
Various sectors have already raised the possibility of an even worse power crisis in Mindanao during the summer months as no significant increase in the region’s baseload capacity has been made.
Pimentel said that if given another mandate to serve in the Senate, he would immediately find various ways to solve Mindanao’s power shortfall as this has adversely affected economic growth and prevented more investors from coming in.