TACLOBAN CITY, July 12 -- The business chamber in
Leyte has called on the government to intervene in fast tracking the solution
to restore power in the province and the whole Eastern Visayas region.
This following the announcement that testing of
temporary power on Monday and Tuesday failed after it was found out that both
power generating plants and transmission lines were destroyed by the 6.5
magnitude earthquake which struck Leyte on Jly 6.
Wilson Uy, president of the Philippine Chamber of
Commerce and Industry Leyte, Inc., said the current power situation is causing
the business sector to shoulder additional costs in their daily operation.
"This additional costs will be passed on to
consumers eventually. In the end, it will be the people who would bear the
brunt of increasing prices," Uy said
He added that with the magnitude of the destruction
to the power source and the transmission facilities, the solution cannot be
provided by the power companies alone.
In the meantime, Uy said that a number of
businesses in Tacloban and in nearby Palo town are taking the power outage as
an advantage.
Businesses selling generator sets and other
alternative power are "in" for now.
However, Uy added there are other businesses which
have opted to close down for the last six days following the region-wide
blackout.
While some are planning to cut short store hours to
save on fuel powering their generator sets.
Meanwhile, banks in Tacloban are shortening their
service hours from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Uy likewise called on the business sector to
"persevere in the current situation" and to cooperate in any way
power will be restored soon.
"We underwent more than this during Typhoon
Yolanda. We will surely survive this as well," Uy said. (Ahlette
Reyes/PNA)
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