“Pete is using the CUC crisis to help boost his candidacy for congressional delegate and I don’t think it is right,” the governor told Variety.
Tenorio visited Power Plants 1 and 4 last week to document the actual situation of their engines.
After his visit, Tenorio concluded that Saipan’s power situation was a “humanitarian disaster” and he asked the governor to seek help from the U.S. Congress and President Bush.
But according to Fitial, “I am already addressing the problem and I have plans but Pete doesn’t have one.”
CUC Executive Director Antonio S. Muna described Tenorio’s suggestion as “extreme.”
Muna said there had been times in the past when Saipan’s power distribution was down for a month in areas but “the community coped with that and they also coped with the national disaster during typhoons.”
He said the power crisis is not “a humanitarian disaster” but “it’s a challenge for the business community and our other customers and CUC will resolve the problem.”
He urged CUC customers to be patient because “there’s a new horizon for relief here.”
By Sept. 12, power outages should be minimal on Saipan as the generators of Aggreko International Project Ltd are switched on, Muna said.
But Taotao Tano president Gregorio S. Cruz Jr. yesterday said he doubted whether CUC could normalize the power situation by September as projected by Muna.
Based on his information, the second shipment of Aggreko, comprising six containers, will leave Hong Kong on Sept. 5 and is expected to arrive here on Sept. 14.
But Muna said the second shipment will arrive on Aug. 31 as relayed to him by Aggreko on Saturday.
The equipment will be transported to Lower Base on Tuesday since it’s a holiday today, Muna added.
But he had yet to confirm, as of press time yesterday, if the Aggreko shipment did arrive.
But Cruz is again questioning the way CUC transacted business with Aggreko, adding that sole-source procurement was again used to “defeat the interest of the public.”
He said Aggreko’s equipment was transported by a shipping firm owned by Tan Holdings.
Fitial is a former Tan executive.
