Power restored in 3 major quake-hit cities

TACLOBAN CITY, July 14 -- Power was restored in three major cities in Leyte - Ormoc, Tacloban and Baybay, hours after the visit of President Rodrigo Duterto to Ormoc on Thursday.

Power was restored around 8:00 p.m. Thursday in Ormoc, just about three hours after the president’s visit.

In Tacloban, which is serviced by Leyte II Electric Cooperative (Leyeco 2), power was restored at 2:40 a.m. Friday. Leyeco 2 is able to supply power to eight of its nine feeders including the towns of Palo and Babatngon.

However, other areas in the city remain without electricity as of this writing.

Edna Legaspina, the information officer of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), said the power supply being distributed comes from the 10 megawatts from Cebu, nine megawatts from Malitbog geothermal power plant and another nine megawatts from Leyte Geothermal.

The power is being distributed to the three cities and some parts of Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran.

Meanwhile, electricity is expected to be return in some areas in Samar on Friday.

NGCP said it is employing a parallel, simultaneous strategy of repair, replacement, and reconfiguration for its affected transmission equipment, and is pooling all its resources to restore, even partially, power transmission services by the July 31 deadline set by the Department of Energy, or even.

President Duterte and his Cabinet were in Ormoc Thursday to ensure multi-agency response are in place after the July 16 6.5 earthquake downed electricity in at least eight provinces in the Visayas. (PNA/Ahlette C. Reyes)