Thursday, August 05, 2004 Igacos tourist arrivals down 15% due to blackout By Raquel C. Bagnol
TOURIST arrivals in the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos) decreased by about 15 percent during the power outage, which plunged the city into darkness for 16 days last month and caused at least P2 million loses from the city's revenues.
"The impact of the blackout is just minimal to our tourist arrivals. Although there is really an effect, maximum na ang 15 percent drop," Noel Daquiaog, Igacos information officer told Sun.Star in an interview Wednesday.
Daquiaog said the decrease in tourist arrivals was noted with cancelled bookings and other scheduled affairs in several of the more than 30 commercial resorts in the island due to power blackout.
In another interview, Igacos city administrator Cleto Gales said that before the power outage, records from December 2003 to June this year showed an average of 90 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the island.
Gales said the areas that were hit the hardest by the power outage are the tourism industry, food industry, trade and entertainment industry.
"Sa entertainment industry, daghan mga videoke bars ang na-apektuhan sa brown-out kay dependent man sa electricity ang ilang mga negosyo (videoke bars were also affected because their businesses need electricity)," Gales said.
He said the city is still suffering from frequent brownouts as only two of the three main power lines had been restored.
"Daneco is still trying to locate the fault of the third power line, so until the problem is solved, Igacos will suffer indefinite brown-outs in some areas particularly during the peak hours where electricity is in much use, which is from 5-8 p.m.," Gales said.
He said the brownout proved that the people of Igacos could meet and surmount challenges.
Igacos was plunged into darkness on July 14-30 after a suspected cargo ship, the "mv Moses" allegedly dragged and damaged the submarine power cable of the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) on July 14, cutting off the supply of electricity throughout the island.
Igacos is a fifth class city with an estimated population of about 85,000 to 90,000.
It has an annual budget of P210-P230 million pesos and is 85 percent dependent on the Internal Revenue Allocation (IRA).
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