There is something uniquely Filipino about a brownout. We don’t simply lose electricity. We lose Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, television, refrigerators, productivity, patience and sometimes, depending on the neighborhood, our faith in civilization.
Now we have a new term to make the darkness sound more sophisticated: rotational brownout.
Rotational daw.
Murag dating app. Karon ikaw, ugma siya. The electricity goes from one area to another, giving everyone a fair opportunity to experience what it feels like to live without power.
But before we get angry at the electric company, let’s understand why rotational brownouts happen.
The electricity grid has to maintain a delicate balance between supply and demand. If Cebu needs more electricity than the system can safely provide, something has to give.
Instead of allowing the entire grid to collapse, portions of the system may be temporarily disconnected. This is called load shedding. The outages are rotated among areas to protect the larger grid from a potentially much bigger blackout.
In simple terms: better one neighborhood goes dark for an hour than the entire region goes dark for half a day.
Sounds reasonable.
Until you’re the neighborhood.
Imagine you’re in Lahug, rushing to finish an important online meeting. Suddenly, the screen goes black.
Your boss asks, “Are you still there?”
Technically, yes.
Electrically, no.
In Talamban, a student finally decides to study after spending two hours scrolling through TikTok. The moment the student opens the book, the electricity disappears.
Even the power grid seems to be saying, “Ayaw na lang.”
In Banilad, a restaurant is full of customers when the lights suddenly go out. The refrigerator stops. The kitchen stops. The cashier stops.
The customers don’t.
They immediately start asking: “Naa bay generator?”
A sari-sari store owner has another problem. The electricity may rotate, but ice cream does not understand rotation. It simply melts.
And for small businesses, the problem is more serious than inconvenience. Every hour without power can mean lost sales, interrupted production, spoiled goods, delayed transactions and employees who are still on the payroll even when the machines are not working.
Even traffic can become an adventure.
When traffic lights go out at a busy Cebu intersection, motorists suddenly discover their hidden talents in negotiation, patience and creative interpretation of the rules.
But now, somebody is asking the questions that consumers have been asking from inside the darkness.
Cebu Third District Rep. Karen Hope F. Garcia filed House Resolution 1439 seeking an urgent congressional inquiry into the recurring power outages in the Visayas.
And this is not merely another political statement.
Garcia wants the House Committee on Energy to summon the Department of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and major generation and distribution utilities.
She wants to know which power plants were actually operating, which were forced offline, why they went offline and whether the failures were legitimate mechanical problems or something that should have been prevented.
She is also asking a question every Cebuano consumer should care about:
Why should consumers pay more because the power system cannot reliably supply electricity?
Reports indicate Cebu’s electricity rate could climb from around P11 to nearly P19 per kilowatt-hour.
Mao ni ang part nga dili na funny.
Brownout na gani.
Naa pa gyud ang bill?
That is why Garcia’s move deserves attention.
The investigation should not become another hearing where everyone explains, everyone promises, everyone points fingers—and Cebu goes home to another brownout.
We need answers.
We need accountability.
And more importantly, we need solutions.
Because Cebu is no longer a sleepy province waiting for electricity. We are an economic center filled with businesses, factories, offices, hospitals, schools, hotels and homes that increasingly depend on reliable power.
Gov. Pamela Baricuatro has already pushed for an Energy Summit and a Provincial Energy Master Plan. Those are welcome steps. But the Provincial Government, local government units, national agencies, generators, NGCP and distribution utilities must now move together.
Congress can investigate.
Capitol can coordinate.
The regulators can regulate.
The power companies can explain.
But eventually, somebody has to fix the problem.
Because Cebu can understand a temporary brownout.
What Cebu cannot afford is a permanent energy problem.
So yes, call it rotational.
But remember:
The brownout may rotate.
The bills don’t.
