17 villages in Puerto Princesa City hit with ‘blackout’ on New Year’s Day
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– A power outage greeted residents in several villages in Palawan province on the first day of 2021.
At least 17 villages experienced a total blackout after electricity was cut around 7:26 a.m. Friday when a bamboo hooked on an electric post near Puerto Princesa City Jail in Barangay Tiniguiban, triggering a “tripping of the machine.”
Affected areas under the Iwahig Circuit were the barangays of Sta. Monica, Tiniguiban, Sicsican, Irawan, Iwahig, Montible, Sta. Lucia, Luzviminda, Mangingisda, and Napsan.
Villages from Malatgao in Narra town, encompassing Aborlan towns, up to Barangay Tagbarungis in southern Puerto Princesa under the B4 Sectionalizer were also affected by the major power outage.
In a statement on Friday morning, the Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO) said the supply of electricity resumed at 09:19 a.m. for areas under the Iwahig Circuit and 09:23 a.m. under the recloser in Sta. Monica and Solomon.
PALECO said it had restored the power supply to other affected reclosers, including San Manuel, Piltel, Mendoza, Magarwak, Factor, Kalikasan; R3 in Malinao, Narra to Labog before Quezon town; R2 recloser from Brgy. Malinao to Malatgao, Narra town; Chariot recloser, R10 recloser in Roxas Poblacion; R11 recloserin Roxas Barrio; R6 recloser in the southern towns of Ipilan, Brooke’s Point to Sofronio Española; R7 recloser to Pangobilian ABS from Ipilan, Brooke’s Point to Pangobilian.
“Naka-isolate pa ang linya ng Magbarkama recloser at kasalukuyan pang nagpapatrol ang mga lineman sa lugar,” it added.
(The line of Magbarkama recloser is still isolated, and our linemen are currently patrolling the area.)
In June 2019, Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron filed a P1 million civil suit against the power cooperative for “continuous poor power performance and failure to provide quality service to the public.”
The city government has been receiving numerous complaints from city residents, especially the tourism and business sectors that are at the receiving end of the power problem.
The case is still pending at the local city court.
