Poll chief: Power outage warning to be ready on May 13

The Luzon-wide power outage that occurred on Wednesday serves as a warning to concerned government agencies to ready enough power supply on election day on May 13, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said on Thursday.

"Ngayon na nangyari sa atin ito, now we are more careful so siguro magandang warning sa ating lahat 'yan and I hope the Department of Energy and Napocor and lahat ng local government units at electric cooperatives sana tignan nila 'yan," Brillantes said in a radio interview.

"Maybe it's a warning to us and warning to the government para alam natin na pwedeng may mangyaring brownout," he added.

He said the poll body is conducting a final testing of the precint count optical scan machines in several areas when the power outage occurred.

"Nakakagulat biglang nagkaroon ng brownout kahapon. Nagpa-final testing pa tayo .. Maganda naman kasi 'yung final testing was also tested," he said.

Earlier, the poll chief said generator sets in every municipality are on standby in case of a power outage on election day.

He said the PCOS machines also have external batteries that can last up to 12 hours.

A power blackout hit most parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila, on Wednesday due to the sudden outage of the five power plants in the Luzon grid, according to National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). (PNA)