TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The promise of Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla that Leyte and Tacloban City will have a bright Christmas may have been realized, but not entirely in terms of areas where electricity is actually restored.
A week after Yolanda struck Eastern Visayas and other regions in central Philippines on Nov. 8, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla promised that electric services will be back before Christmas Day, otherwise he will resigned from his post.
On Sunday (Dec. 22), when President Benigno Aquino III visited Tacloban City for the second time, he told the local media that Sec. Petilla can bring back power supply in the region today (Dec. 24), as promised.
Based also on the information from the National Electrification Administration (NEA) relayed yesterday, Leyte province is now energized again, a day before the Petilla's self-imposed deadline.
Power lines were back alright in Leyte and Samar provinces, as of yesterday, but priority was given momentarily to public facilities like hospital, churches and government offices. Some electric connections to houses however will take time because of the severity of damage and the quantity of demand.
Leyte Electric Cooperative (Leyeco) 2 general manager Macel Avestruz told The Freeman yesterday that 100 percent of the service area of the power firm has been re-energized. The coop covers three "backbone areas," namely Tacloban City and the towns of Palo and Babatngon, and all of these have their power already restored, she said.
Here in Tacloban City, 50 out of 138 barangays have their power connections back but not to individual houses, which until now have not been rebuilt after being destroyed by Yolanda.
"We have energized 100 percent of the backbone areas covered by Leyeco 2, but we will not compromise the safety of individual houses, the reason why we have not energized some residential areas for now," said the coop official.
Avestruz said that in Regina Subdivision in Barangay Nula-tula of this city, all 226 houses already have electricity.
"For the individual houses, we can re-energize them when they are habitable and have complied with the fire safety certificate issued by the fire department," she said, adding that the entire coverage area of Leyeco 2 will be fully energized within a year from now.
In the downtown area of the city, majority of the residential houses and business establishments comprising of 52,000 consumers, are ready for power reconnections, she said.
Avestruz thanked private entities that helped Leyeco 2 in the rehabilitation of the power supply in Leyte.
Reports from Ormoc City, Baybay City, and other towns in other parts of Leyte, said that power lines along the highways have been restored, but not all residential houses have their electricity back, pending inspections of authorities if these are safe and ready to have electrical connections again. (FREEMAN)