Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has ordered the continued “presence” of the Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) in addressing the power woes in the Camotes group of islands, located east of the Cebu mainland.
“Cebeco should continue to have a presence,” Garcia said during a meeting on Thursday with officials of Cebeco, Camotes Electric Cooperative (Celco), Camotes Island Power Generation Corp. (Campcor), and state-run National Power Corp. (NPC), and the island’s three town mayors.
She said she wants the power cooperative to have a say in coordination meetings among Camotes’ power stakeholders to put an end to the years-long energy problem in the famous tourist island.
Celco is the primary power distributor in the various cities and municipalities in the province of Cebu.
Garcia said she has been “trying her best” to boost the progress of Camotes by providing the island with the much-needed road infrastructure and water sources, but these will not matter if the beach destination continues to suffer from power outages.
“It’s the same problem. You cannot be subjecting an entire population (on) the island of Camotes to your hit-and-miss trial. That’s not what I want to accept in this province because here in Cebu, excellence is what we aim for,” she was quoted as saying in a mix of Cebuano and English in a statement released by the Capitol’s Provincial Information Office.
During the meeting, Garcia was told that Campcor has taken over the power generation in Camotes after the government-run NPC ended its generation operations in the island on June 30.
The NPC officials assured that they are going to assist Campcor until the latter’s operations in Camotes become smooth.
According to representatives of Campcor, they have 7.1 megawatts of power supply ready for Camotes’ electricity consumers by August.
They explained that for now, they are temporarily using a 5-megawatt rented generator for Camotes, more than the 3.5-megawatt power requirement of the whole island.
According to the mayors, Celco, the power distributor on the island, would always blame the power outages on the transition of power generation from NPC to Campcor.
Garcia said she doesn’t want to hear the same reason again, and that she wants Cebeco, with its good track record in power distribution, to intervene to help Celco and other stakeholders in ensuring the stable power situation in Camotes.
Celco has completed 45 percent of the 12-km. power distribution line upgrade in the island, an important step to achieve the island’s efficient power distribution.
Source: Philippines News Agency
