Laguna folk bracing for lingering brownouts

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—In a sign that the people of the province are bracing for a longer ordeal over lack of electricity, candles and flashlights have become highly priced commodities in this town and elsewhere in Laguna.

In this town, at least five stores checked by the Inquirer said they had or were about to run out of candles.

“These are among the last batches [of candles],” said storekeeper Jocel Agpayan, pointing to a pile of candles in her store.

Some candles sell for P10 each. The factory that produces these, Agpayan said, had increased prices from P6 to P7 per candle.

“We don’t know yet when the electricity is coming back,”  resident Benjie Villacruel said.

In another grocery store, people queued for candles, flashlights and head lamps.

Storekeepers from two stores also said they ran out of candles the day before Typhoon “Glenda” struck.

“We don’t have candles anymore because the supplier stopped delivering,” a female storekeeper said.

As of Friday, the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces) Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) placed the death toll at 43.

Seven of the additional fatalities, mostly drowning victims, were reported in Quezon  by the local DRRMC.

The Quezon DRRMC said two people remained missing—Eliseo Perez and Angel Turia, both from San Francisco town.

Electricity has been restored to 60 percent of Laguna, Batangas and Cavite  and 80 percent in Rizal. But in Quezon, only 20 percent of the province has power, said Frederick Bragas, information officer of the Calabarzon DRRMC.

Typhoon Glenda has hit 78 municipalities and cities in the region and destroyed 11,248 houses, a report from the regional DRRMC said.

The typhoon also left P17 million in damage to crops and fruit-bearing trees and P2 million to fisheries after several fish cages and pens were wrecked by strong winds.

In San Pedro City, Laguna, some people shone with their generosity, like Ding Lanado of Pacita Complex 2. He allowed neighbors to charge mobile phones and gadgets in his generator set.

“It makes me happy,” Lanado said of helping people.

In Bicol, power has yet to be restored in six provinces.

Damage to agriculture was estimated at P2.5 billion while damage to infrastructure was placed at P1.4 billion, according to the Office of Civil Defense  (OCD) in Bicol.

Glenda also destroyed 7,815 houses and damaged 26,605 others, the OCD-Bicol report said.

Albay Power and Energy Corp.  said it was ready to restore power to  parts of the cities of Legazpi and Tabaco once the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines starts to energize its 69-kilovolt lines.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said the provincial government couldn’t  wait to start the recovery and rehabilitation process. With reports from  Romulo Ponte, Delfin T. Mallari Jr. and Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon