21-hour blackout irks Boholanos

A family is waiting for dinner by kerosene lamp due to a power cut. Leo Udtohan/INQUIRER PHOTO

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol — A kerosene lamp lighted the dining table while Analiza Boaquin and her family had dinner on Saturday night.

Power was supposed to resume at 5 p.m. but it was already early evening and Bohol was still plunged into darkness.

The power was restored at 12:27 a.m. on Sunday or after almost 21 hours.

The blackout started at 4 a.m. to give way to the scheduled annual preventive maintenance of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) in its 138-kilovolts (kV) Maasin-Ubay line 2.

READ: 13-hour blackout in Bohol due to repairs

In an advisory, NGCP informed the public that the power shut down would last until 5 p.m. of Saturday and would affect the entire Bohol, including consumers of Bohol Light Company, Incorporated (BLCI); Bohol Electric Cooperative, Incorporated (Boheco) I and II.

Boheco I and II distribute power in 47 municipalities and Bohol Light Company, in Tagbilaran.

Advisories from NGCP and power distributors in Bohol said that that power supply would resume at 6 p.m., an hour after the supposed completion of maintenance work at 5.

But it was already 7 p.m. and power had not returned.

The almost 21-hour power outage is leaving Bohol province in the dark on Saturday. Leo Udtohan/INQUIRER PHOTO

By 7 p.m., the NGCP issued another advisory informing the public that the power interruption would be extended up to 8 p.m.

But still, there was no power.

By then, most of the Boholanos had dinner by  candlelight or kerosene lamp, like in the case of Boaquin and her family.

She said it was difficult to work in the dark since she was feeding her two year old-daughter Alay.

She also said that the blackout reminded her of the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yolanda on Nov. 8, 2013 that hit the province three weeks after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook Bohol and killed at least 200 people.

Some business establishments with no generator sets in Tagbilaran, the provincial capital, were closed. Other restaurants used candles but were forced to close at 5 p.m. since it was getting dark.

The delay in the power restoration irked Boholanos who turned to social media to vent their anger.

“After an 18 hr of Stone Age Era-almost felt like. Nabalik ang kuryente. We Boholanos would want to pursue that we can call our own Hydro Electric Power Plant,” said Ubay resident Van Delima on Facebook.

Another resident Dominic Aparicio said on Facebook that he should think it was an Earth Hour.

“SOP I just EARTHOUR 24hrs ..,” he said.

The NGCP through its spokesperson Betty B. Martinez posted an apology on Facebook.

“NGCP sincerely apologizes for the inconveniences the prolonged power interruption had caused to power consumers in Bohol.” JE/rga