Blackout hits some areas in Mandaue

CEBU, Philippines – Some areas in Cabancalan, Mandaue City, experienced brownouts yesterday due to a 21-megawatt power shortage.

Visayan Electric Company Inc. spokesman Basti Lacson said that from 1 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. the said area sustained some power outages.

Lacson said that they had to resort to rotating brownouts as some power plants of the National Power Corporation were not running.

Napocor spokesman Dennis Gana said that their two power plants, the Cebu Power Thermal Plant 1 and 2 have been undergoing preventive maintenance since last week. The two power plants have a combined capacity of 100 kilowatts.

Gana said that hopefully that power plant 1 will be operational by late night yesterday while the power plant 2 is expected to be back in the system within the week.

Gana however said that the preventive maintenance had been scheduled ahead of the recent incidents.

“Alam ng mga power distributors diyan sa Cebu that we will have a prevention maintenance for our two power plants kasi scheduled ‘yan,” Gana explained.

Meanwhile, Cebu City councilor Sylvan Jakosalem said that the city is planning to provide a generator for the City Traffic Operations Management.

“Twelve (o’clock) na and ang tanan na radio sa CITOM personnel kay na low batt na pero wa sila’y ka-charge-an because of the black out,” Jakosalem said, adding that this should never happen again.

“In my meeting with personnel from CITOM, we decided that we should have a generator ibutang sa CITOM building para adto maka-charge ang mga radio,” he said.

CITOM was flooded with complaints for Saturday’s traffic jams in critical points and intersections of the city after traffic lights were rendered useless by the blackout.

There were not enough traffic personnel to cover all major areas in the city as most CITOM personnel were on day-off.

“They had to be informed pa through text.” Jakosalem said about the delay in deploying traffic personnel to the main roads. 

He added that this incident has become a lesson for the CITOM who should immediately field personnel to man traffic during emergencies.

Aside from Cebu, some parts of the Visayas such as Panay, Negros and some parts of Samar and Leyte were also affected by the said blackout. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon with Crischellyn D. Abayon and Queennie Kuebler (THE FREEMAN)