Brownouts

FROM BARBERSHOPS, beauty salons, to neighborhood meat shops, unpredictable electricity supply has become the daily reality for businesses and residents in Mawab town, where unannounced power interruptions and voltage fluctuations are taking a steady toll on livelihoods and daily routines.

When asked about his experience of the unstable power supply in Mawab, Erwin A. Lastra, a 33-year-old barber in downtown Mawab town, had to stop for a second. Brownouts have become such a part of their daily lives that he had to digest the question.

“But now that I think about it, we had one just last week without any prior notice and it lasted about two hours,” he said. “Unlike with the scheduled interruption that they announce on Facebook, we really have no idea when the electricity will go out.”

Fortunately, their single AC has not broken down from fluctuating power or a voltage drop. Not yet, anyway. But he thinks it’s just a matter of time. His personal experience in their own house said so.

“Where I live, in our barangay just 15 minutes from here by motorcycle, we’ve had day-long brownouts. We had to throw the chicken meat from our fridge because it got spoiled since everyone was out to work,” he said.

The barbershop is just surviving, where 20 clients from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at P100 each cut is considered a good day. “The reason we have an AC here is to make our customers more comfortable. So, during brownouts, I can endure the heat and sweat while I cut their hair. Some customers are not as willing,” he said.

As a result, some customers hesitate when they are greeted with warm air when they slide the glass door. They promised to come back but never did.

He earns through commissions for every hair he cuts, so his take-home pay is severely affected by power interruptions. But Erwin just shrugs his shoulders, as if resigned to their reality that they live in.

Just in time, a customer walks in cutting off the interview. Erwin wrapped a cloth around the man’s shoulders and gave the sharp scissors a quick snip. It’s 9:30 in the morning, the first customer of the day. Hopefully, the power will hold out this time and he can go home with a fatter wallet. 

Normalizing an abnormal situation

Felipa Rasona, 33, a beautician at a local beauty salon, said that they have learned to normalize what should have been a peculiar situation. For instance, to deal with the high electricity rates, they adopted a “three-customer rule.”

“That means we will only turn on our AC when there are three customers,” he shared. “If not, we just turn on the electric fan.”

Their door is also almost always open to allow some breeze in. Except, of course, when there are three customers.

As a result, they managed to maintain their monthly electricity bills with the Northern Davao Electric Cooperative to P2,000, give or take. “Our problem is not really our electricity bill. It’s that they (electric cooperative) changed their policy regarding disconnection,” he said.

Just in December 2025, they had a run-in with the electricity provider.  Chalk it up to miscommunication or the fog of a Christmas vacation but fail to receive their electricity bill for one month. 

The next time they received the bill, it was a red notice. “They did not even give us a few minutes to their office to settle the account. They immediately cut off our electricity after giving us the disconnection notice,” he explained.

He said customers used to be given a three-month leeway before receiving the disconnection notice. Now, they only get two months. “It’s their policy, of course. But we don’t like that they changed it,” he added.“

Due date”

In the four years that Marcel L. Domingo, 36, manager of Rean Meat Shop, has worked for the store, she eventually noticed a pattern.

“Whenever the due date comes, our electricity always fluctuates. There’s like two to three power outages in a day,” she said. “I don’t know how to explain it or the reason why, but that always happens.” 

While she looked bemused, it’s only because she couldn’t explain it. However, fluctuating power is a serious matter, considering that they have expensive freezers to run and frozen meat that are at risk of spoiling.

Just in the first week of May, two of their freezers were no longer functioning optimally. “We had to call in technicians for repair since the freezers failed to cool the meat,” she said. “For labor alone, we paid about P4,500 each, not including the parts.”

The shop also managed to find a workaround to the extended power outages—which are unfortunately  scheduled during weekends when the traffic foot is high—by running their freezers at full blast overnight. So, when that happens, they can preserve the meat for one full day before the cold dissipates.

“We heard that Davao Light is coming to Mawab. I don’t know much about their service, but I heard some good things like they are cheaper or more stable,” she said. “We definitely welcome it, but only because it gives the people options. Whether they stay with Nordeco or transfer to Davao Light, at least they have a choice.”