10 more areas in Cebu get ballots

TEN more areas in Cebu received their official ballots yesterday. Today, 16 areas are scheduled to receive theirs.

The towns of Alegria, Ginatilan, Malabuyoc, Samboan and Santander in the 2nd district of the province got their ballots yesterday. The ballots arrived last Wednesday yet, when the first batch arrived for distribution in Cebu.

Mandaue City and Tuburan also got their ballots yesterday along with the 4th district areas of Bogo City, Tabogon and Tabuelan.

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The ballots will be secured at the municipal or city treasurer’s office.

Today, ballots are scheduled to be distributed in the Bantayan Island towns of Bantayan, Madridejos and Santa Fe and municipalities in the Camotes group of islands—Pilar, Poro, San Francisco and Tudela.

Ballots are also scheduled to be distributed in the 1st district areas of Minglanilla and Naga and Talisay Cities as well as 2nd district towns of Alcantara, Badian, Barili, Dumanjug, Moalboal and Ronda.

The distribution of ballots will continue tomorrow and Monday.

A total of 2,873 packages are expected to arrive from Manila on Monday for the 52 towns and cities in Cebu.

Each package contains 500 to 1,000 ballots, depending on the number of voters per clustered precinct. There are no more than 1,000 voters per cluster.

Meanwhile, with 10 days to go before the elections, Metro Cebu suffered sporadic brownouts.

The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), however, assured there will be no interruptions on election day.

Yesterday’s brownout was caused by power rationing caused by defective equipment near the main sub-transmission line, according to Veco corporate communications manager Ethel Natera.

Natera said large parts of Cebu City and Mandaue City were affected by the power outage, which was restored after two hours.

A briefing at the Malacañang sa Sugbo about government projects was interrupted by the brownout.

In the past days, power was rationed daily because of supply deficiency from power generation plants.

Natera stressed that Veco is only a distribution firm. “We don’t operate a power plant. So, if there is no power supply, we can’t distribute power.”

Natera said Veco needs 162 megawatts (mw) to supply Cebu City alone. A total of 340 mw is needed to service Veco’s entire franchise area, which is from San Fernando in the south to Liloan in the north.

The two gas turbines with a power generation capacity of 50 mw at the Naga Power Plant Complex (NPPC) were not in operation since this was bought by the SPC Power Corp. early this year from Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm).

SPC Power has an existing contract with the National Power Corp. (NPC) to operate NPPC. The contract will expire in 2013. But by next year, SPC Power, in a joint venture with the Korean Electric Company (Kepco), will operate two 100 mw coal-power power plants in Naga City, near the NPCC.

In an earlier interview, Department of Energy Visayas Director Antonio Labios said they cannot force SPC Power to operate the gas turbines to augment the power supply because these have been privatized.