How many people in the Philippines are expected to watch Manny Pacquiao’s title fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night? Enough that local officials have asked residents to turn off some household appliances to assure there are not power outages during the bout.
According to the AFP, residents of the western Philippines are being urged to unplug their refrigerators in advance of the fight. Rante Ramos, who is the secretary of the electrical company on the island of Palawan, posted the request on Facebook.
“Truth is, come May 3 … Palawan grid would still be 2-megawatt short of power supply,” he wrote. “Some circuits may inevitably be switched off. Collectively we can do something. On May 3, let’s all voluntarily switch off or disconnect as many appliances as we could.”
Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan, has been experiencing regular power outages that last from two to three hours. If the roughly 15,000 households all unplug their refrigerators and refrain from using washing machines, air conditioners and other appliances on Sunday (when the fight airs in the Philippines’ time zone), Ramos believes the fight could air uninterrupted.
The fight is scheduled to be shown on public TVs throughout Puerto Princesa, as it is being sponsored by two candidates who are running for mayor in the May 8 elections. As we know, Pacquiao is very involved with politics in the Philippines and has big plans for retirement.
Let’s just hope the people of the Philippines can avoid the same type of power outages we saw during the Super Bowl several years ago. That isn’t fun for anyone.
H/T Michele Steele
