Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Outage slowed down work at fiscal's office By Rhodamae M. Hernandez and Carlo P. Mallo
WORK at the records section of the City Prosecution Office (CPO) continued even amid the Southern Mindanao-wide power outage last Monday, although several clients who were there just to verify cases were requested to just come back.
Marie Ann Durano, records section chief, said they continued to accommodate cases for inquest proceedings.
"Bisan ngitngit kaayo, kailangan man gyud namo ma accommodate ang mga inquest na kaso kay mao gyud pud among gi-prioritize (Even though it was very dark we had to accommodate those filed on inquest, that's why we prioritized these)," Durano told Sun.Star Davao.
She said they had to turn down those who came over to check on records.
"Gipabalik lang namo kay dili gyud makaya na ato ka ngit-ngit tapos mangita mi ug records. Giuna lang gyud namo ang inquest kay naa man sila'y pila ka hours na dapat i-detain (We just asked them to come back because it was very dark in our office and it was difficult to look for records in that situation. We really just acted on inquest proceedings because the suspects here can only be detained for a certain number of hours)," Durano said.
Trials at the Regional Trial Court were ordered rescheduled by Executive Judge Isaac Robillo.
Five successive main power line trips of the National Transmission Corporation last Monday sent Davao City into a standstill with workers from both public and private offices forced out of their dark and hot offices.
An official statement from Emmanuel D. Abellanosa, vice president of Transco for Mindanao Operations and Maintenance, said they are still investigating the cause of the unusual and repetitive outages experienced by the entire Southern Mindanao power grid.
The daylong power outage affected the cities of Davao, General Santos, Tacurong and Cotabato, as well as the provinces of Davao, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and Cotabato. Five successive line trips were recorded by Transco with the first one occurring at 8:19 a.m. Monday, at the Agus 2 substation in Sagularan, Lanao del Sur.
The second and consecutive line trips occurred at about 8:55, then at 10:41, and at 11:15, and lastly at 12:31 p.m. of Monday.
Abellanosa added they are also looking into the situation at the Kibawe substation in Bukidnon.
"Transco has already dispatched line personnel to conduct foot patrol on the said lines in the hope of finding the possible causes of the recurrent trips experienced last Monday," Abellanosa's official statement reads.
Transco has also sought the assistance of the Philippine Air Force to conduct an aerial patrol on the area to reinforce the investigation conducted by its line personnel.
Moreover, business transactions in the city were greatly affected. With Mondays always being the busiest day of the week for businesses, long queues ensued with all transactions having to be done manually.
Despite having power generators, most business establishments still felt the brunt of the power outage. People flocked to hotels and malls to escape from the heat brought about by the hot humid weather last Monday.
Apart from losing power, water supply was also cut off since the power outage did not spare power supply to the pumping stations of the Davao City Water District (DCWD).
Students in the various universities of the city had to contend with the heat without electric fans and air-conditioners working to cool off the high temperature of the city.
Power was restored throughout the region at around 6 p.m. Monday.
