PILAR town still has no electricity, almost three months after typhoon Yolanda damaged 822 houses, affecting residents in its 13 barangays.
The Camotes Electric Co. (Celco) head in the island of Pilar, Engr. Angelito Quizon, yesterday said they are aiming to restore power in the town on Feb. 7.
The island of Pilar, with 12,000 residents, has three generator units, said Quizon, two 165 kilowatt each and one 1,250 kilowatt.
The Cebu Province’s Taskforce Panaglig-on chairperson Baltazar Tribunalo visited Camotes island to conduct assess, gather as much data on what has been done so far, the immediate needs. He also asked about “gaps” in the intervention.
Meeting
Today, all town mayors, vice mayors and their officials will meet with Tribunalo, and a team of donors to discuss their immediate needs as donors will assess where and how will they fit in.
With Tribunalo’s team yesterday are Bro. Willy Mosselmans from Redemptorist Belgium and Patrick Haghedooren, a European philantrophist.
Marten Van Der Veen, Shelter Cluster information manager is also with the group together with Canadian Nick Brown, a resource specialist on permaculture aid.
During informal talks with local officials in Pilar island, he learned of the problem on power supply.
Quizon told Tribunalo that he lacked manpower—with only four lineman and 11 groundline personnel, lacked materials like insulators, and hardware and equipment. They don’t have boom trucks and only have a service vehicle that stands on top of the vehicle to work on tall posts.
The National Electrificatin Administration (NEA) visited Pilar last week and promised
to send a task force on light rehabilitation next week.
Quizon told Tribunalo that they need a boom truck and a service vehicle.
He assured Tribunalo that once the taskforce arrives, they will start lighting up the island on Feb 7.
GI sheets
Municipal Engineer Roberto Borinaga said so far the town has distributed GI sheets, eight sheets per household with badly damaged homes, and nails.
Dr. Jay Maratas, Pilar municipal health officer, told Tribunalo that their immediate need is the repair of their badly-damaged rural health unit (RHU), including the
adjacent and unfinished birthing center.
Tribunalo asked Borinaga, to prepare the program of works for the RHU and birthing center, with a total cost of P2.5 million for today’s (Thursday) general assessment meeting here in San Francisco town.
Tribunalo also asked DepEd principals and supervisors to attend today’s meeting to take up damaged classrooms, like the destroyed donated building and main building in Pilar Central School.
Without making any promises and commitment, Tribunalo listed down all their immediate needs and long-term needs.
He said the task force need to consolidate all needed items as they might send them all through a barge.
Veen said Shelter Cluster need to gather information on the status of survivors’ shelter needs.
He said some data gathered by local government units cannot be used as they have different ways of assessing the extent of damage. Today, LGUs will meet to discuss their damage assessments.