44 towns in Visayas still without electricity

MANILA, Philippines - Some 44 towns in the Visayas hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda are still without electricity, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) reported yesterday.

NEA deputy administrator Sonia San Diego informed the House energy committee that of the 133 towns affected by the storm, power supply has been restored in 89 town centers while 32 other municipalities “are ready to receive power, while supply in the remaining 12 would be restored on or before Dec. 23.”

She did not say, nor was she asked, in what particular provinces these towns are located.

San Diego said power supply is confined to the “town proper,” although NEA, through electric cooperatives under it, is trying to cover nearby communities.

She said it would take time before all barangays in the 133 towns would be energized again.

San Diego thanked electric cooperatives led by Rep. Michael Angelo Rivera of party-list group 1st Consumers Alliance for Rural Energy (1-CARE) for contributing equipment and personnel to help restore power lines.

Rivera reported that he himself led his people in going to the Samar-Leyte region to help electric cooperatives rehabilitate their facilities.

He said they also distributed relief goods.

Going to Eastern Visayas by land, he said he did not hear of any complaint that certain port personnel in Matnog, Sorsogon were extorting money from transporters of relief goods and equipment as claimed by a governor.

He added that it was the administrator of the Philippine Ports Authority and Sorsogon Rep. Deogracias Ramos Jr. who helped clear vehicles using the port on their way to Samar-Leyte.

Mindoro Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali, energy committee chairman, asked the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to immediately connect the 32 towns ready to receive power to its network.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla has vowed to restore electricity in town and city centers before Dec. 25 or he would give up his post.

During the hearing, Cebu Rep. Benhur Salimbangon complained that while power supply has been restored in Bantayan Island, Cebu, it runs for only six hours – two hours in the morning, two in the afternoon and two in the evening.

“Bantayan is our egg basket. It used to produce 1.6 million eggs a day before Yolanda wiped out most poultry farms. Egg producers cannot restore operations with only six hours of power supply,” he said.

For his part, Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. is taking time to clean up the oil spill caused by its power barge that ran aground in Estancia town in his province.

ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio urged Education Secretary Armin Luistro to immediately extend financial assistance to teachers and other personnel affected by the typhoon.

“Teachers and other Department of Education (DepEd) employees affected by Yolanda are suffering up to now, and they could not understand why they are also the ones being burdened to shoulder the responsibility of repairing damaged classrooms,” Tinio said.

He said more than a month after disaster struck, classes are still being held in “terrible conditions” such as makeshift classrooms, oven-like tents or classrooms with tarps for roofs.

He said teachers and other DepEd personnel in the affected areas worry that they would have to resort to their own devices and tap into their own funds.

Tinio said DepEd has been slow to assess the damage on public schools, and that his office has received several complaints from teachers and other employees from Samar, Leyte, Panay, Cebu and other divisions who used their own money to repair classrooms and offices.

He said the survivors expect government to at least assist them in their personal recovery by extending financial assistance or zero-interest loans that would help in their daily expenses and in rebuilding their homes.

Use coconut levy fund

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto called on the government to use the estimated P77 billion in coconut levy funds to help the coconut farmers who lost their livelihood.

Recto likened the coco levy fund to “low hanging fruit” that can be picked by the thousands of coconut farmers, who were the very people who contributed to the fund several decades ago.

He noted that coconut farmers were one of the sectors hit hardest by the typhoon, especially in the Eastern Visayas region where the copra industry is the principal source of livelihood for many residents.

Citing preliminary data, Recto noted that around 34 million coconut trees were downed by the storm covering an area of 41,662 hectares in Regions 6, 7 and 8.

Recto pointed out that the assistance to the coconut farmers must not be limited to the planting of new coconut trees, which he said would take seven years before bearing fruit.

He said that qualified beneficiaries must be given the flexibility to choose the replacement or transitory crop of P15,000 per hectare.

According to Recto, this approach is feasible in light of studies showing that from an annual income of P15,000 from a hectare of coconut, intercropping it with cacao can raise it to P97,000, and with cacao and bananas to P120,000.

The coco levy was imposed on copra sales from 1971 to 1982, which Recto said reached P9.7 billion in 1986.

On May 7, 2004, the Sandiganbayan rendered a partial summary judgment declaring that the six CIIF-OMG companies, their 14 holding firms, and the CIIF-OMG block of San Miguel Corp. shares are “owned by the government in trust for all the coconut farmers.”

The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Sandiganbayan in a decision handed down in January 2012.  â€“ With Paolo Romero, Marvin Sy