At sendong victims housing site: NORECO-2 oks budget for power connection

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – After a long wait and some hitches, the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative-2 has finally approved the P1.3 million allocation for the construction of the secondary line that will supply power to houses at the Caritas Village-Phase I in Barangay Bajumpandan of this city.

Juancho Gallarde, chairman of the committee on peace and order of the Bajumpandan Barangay Council, on Thursday said electric poles are now expected to be erected at the housing site after the budget allocation. “Staking at the Phase I site has already started,” he said.

According to Gallarde, NORECO-2 board member James Fontelo called him up recently informing the approval of the budget for the energization of the Caritas Village Phase I after a board meeting chaired by lawyer Pinky Tagle.

The Dumaguete Caritas Village Shelter Project consists of two phases in separate locations in the outskirt village of Bajumpandan and provides low-cost housing to 165 families who were displaced by typhoon Sendong in December 2011.

Sendong (international code name Washi) was the deadliest storm to hit the Philippines in 2011 and had left thousands dead and billions of pesos in damages in many parts of the country, including Negros Oriental, which capital city is Dumaguete.

The housing project was a joint undertaking of the Catholic Church, through the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, the Caritas, the Diocese of Dumaguete through its Social Action Center and the city government.

The delay in the supply of electricity to the housing sites were caused by some unexpected events, such as the change of leadership at NORECO-2 and the death of its general manager this year, in addition to the city’s failure to meet the funding requirements of that project.

Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria had repeatedly said that it was part of the social responsibility of NORECO-2 to provide power connection to the low-cost housing project sites.

Meanwhile, Father Burton Villarmente, director of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Dumaguete, thanked all the people who worked for the approval of the budget for the lighting up of the Caritas Village sites, although he was apprehensive about the time frame to complete the project, which he said was already long overdue.

Villarmente noted that Watts of Love, an international non-profit organization, was way ahead of the local authorities to provide electricity to the Caritas Village residents by giving them solar panel systems. (FREEMAN)