Deadline on electricity met–Petilla

Newly installed Christmas lanterns light up the facade of Sto. Niño Parish Church along Real Street in Tacloban City, which has been connected to the power grid, according to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla. RICHARD A. REYES

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said he was able to meet his self-imposed deadline in providing energy to typhoon-hit areas in the Visayas.

Petilla, however, said that only the main lines of town centers and cities had power and not the households.

Providing electricity to houses would be the job of the local governments and their respective power cooperatives, he said.

This was because their duty was to provide energy to the grids, the backbone of the electricity and not to residences, he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Petilla said that in the case of Eastern Visayas, the last areas where power had been restored were the towns of Guiuan, Giporlos, Quinapondan, Balangiga and Lawaan, which had also been devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

These areas were energized on Monday night (December 23), the energy secretary said.

“We were able to meet the deadline,” said Petilla, former governor of Leyte province before he was appointed to the Cabinet position.

Petilla offered to resign from his post if he could not meet his self-imposed deadline of December 24.

Petilla urged the mayors, particularly naming Remedios Petilla of Palo town and Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban City, to gather their respective local electricians to check the wirings of houses in areas hit by Yolanda, which brought waters reaching up to 20 feet high.

Petilla said the wirings of the houses submerged in water should be checked first to ensure their safety so as not to cause fire. Petilla said Leyte, Western Samar and Eastern Samar, which were hit by Yolanda, had been “100-percent energized.”

The provinces of Biliran, Southern Leyte and Northern Samar did not sustain much destruction but the power supplies in these areas were shut down in the first weeks after the November 8 supertyphoon. The power has been restored since.

Ma. Rosario Avestruz, general manager of the Leyte II Electric Cooperative (Leyeco II), said only the so-called secondary lines were energized by the power providers but the houses had yet to have their power connections.

Avestruz said it was “still impossible” to reconnect power to houses considering their wiring systems were destroyed and got wet during the typhoon.

Petilla did not promise to provide electricity directly to the houses but only to the main lines, Avestruz stressed.

As soon as the household wiring connections had been inspected and repaired, they would be ready to provide power to their more than 57,000 member-consumers because their secondary lines, which provide electricity directly to the houses, had been energized since Dec. 15, Avestruz said.

Leyeco II covers Tacloban City and the towns of Babatngon and Palo.

Avestruz said that on December 21, they attempted to provide power to more than 210 houses at Regina Hills, a subdivision located in Diit district, Tacloban City.

However, they had to stop the power supply to the area because several houses still had defective wiring systems, she disclosed.

“We cannot risk providing electricity to our houses at the expense of a possible fire incident,” Avestruz explained.

She said she expected that the electricity would be supplied to all its member-consumers early next year. However, she did not give any timetable.