SHORTAGES : Filipinos Steaming at Constant Power Crisis : Decrepit generating plants mean frequent blackouts, sweltering homes and problems for Aquino’s successor.

As head of the high-profile task force investigating the nation’s power problems, Raul T. Concepcion, a prominent industrialist and presidential adviser, has studied reams of data, interviewed scores of technicians and made loads of recommendations. So what’s his advice for the country’s electric power officials?

“Line them up on the wall and shoot them all!” he said. “That’s the only thing to do.”

Few appeared to disagree this week, when the Philippines experienced new jolts in the worst power crisis this nation has endured since World War II. After three months of mounting blackouts, millions of angry residents in Manila and southern Luzon Island awoke Thursday to a record shortage of 1,245 megawatts, or nearly 40% of peak power needs.

The power shortages have meant unscheduled blackouts lasting up to 15 hours for parts of the capital in the grip of a sweltering summer--and warnings that daily blackouts are likely for at least another year.

“Unfortunately, people must be patient until mid-1993,” said Wenceslao De La Pax, chairman of the National Power Corp., which runs the nation’s fast-collapsing system of power plants. “Even then, the situation will be critical.”

The toll already is critical. Officials estimate industrial and commercial losses of at least $800 million since the crisis began in March. The Bankers Assn. predicts that the power shortage will slow annual economic growth by more than half. An estimated 200,000 workers already have been laid off.

And that says nothing about the challenge of living and working with no lights, refrigerators, computers or other modern conveniences. (The cost of home generators has skyrocketed, assuming one can be found.)

“I’m very angry,” said Diane Santos, who heads the Garment Business Assn. of the Philippines, the nation’s largest export industry. “I can’t work well. I can’t sleep. . . . It’s so hot. So dirty. It’s devastating. Devastating!”

The blackouts are President Corazon Aquino’s most serious failure as she prepares to leave office June 30. She abolished the energy department after she took office in 1986 and mothballed the scandal-plagued 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. But her government did not build a single major power plant in six years, despite aging equipment and steadily increasing demand.

“It’s not really surprising what’s happened,” said Vladimir Bohun, head of the regional power division at the Asian Development Bank. “No emergency or long-term planning was implemented.”

As a result, the power crisis looms as the most immediate challenge for Aquino’s likely successor, retired general Fidel V. Ramos. He pledged this week to support opening the Bataan plant, if it passes safety tests.

Manila’s 10 million residents have endured at least 58 blackouts, averaging three hours each, since March 1, records show. Since April, the outages have been daily, or nightly, and often have lasted up to six hours. In the last week, they have lasted as long as 12 hours.

The nation’s semiconductor industry reports production losses of at least $1 million a day. The $2-billion-a-year garment industry reports that the blackouts have meant laying off workers, missing deadlines and losing overseas orders.

The roots of the power problem are easy to find. Ten of the eleven major thermal plants are more than 25 years old, but officials apparently did not factor in stepped-up maintenance and overhaul time as the equipment ages.

Adding to the problem, six of the plants were fitted with faulty boiler tubes in 1990, purchased under unexplained circumstances, and now can produce at less than 60% of rated capacity. That has meant the loss of 980 megawatts, nearly the total deficit. Replacing the tubes would cost $420 million.

A drought two years ago prompted the first series of blackouts--and warnings that something was amiss. Partly in response, the Asian Development Bank approved a $200-million loan in October, 1990, to build the first unit of a 300-megawatt coal-fired plant at Masinaloc in Zambales province. But environmental questions and local politics have delayed groundbreaking.

“The problem is not lack of money,” said Bohun. “It’s the system that doesn’t work.”