4 months after yolanda in leyte Cebu's team lights up 25T houses in 5 days

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Four months after the Yolanda devastation, at least 25,000 houses in Palo town and this city in Leyte got back their electrical connections and now have lights, with about 7,000 more being readied to have their power back.

This was yesterday's output report of Boggie Tiu, general manager of the Cebu Electric Cooperative (CEBECO) 2 and overall task force commander of the Task Force Kapatid CEBECO 1, 2, 3 that volunteered to come and restore power in this part of Leyte, at no cost to the government.

The Task Force, also known as Team Kidlat and headed by Father Francisco Silva, arrived in Tacloban City last March 3 and immediately started works the following day and onward, on a daily 4 a.m.-5 p.m. daily grind of setting up power poles, installing wirings and electrical meters on the houses for free.  

Team Kidlat, consisting of 577 engineers and linemen from Cebu, brought with them 33 boom trucks, welding machines and equipment needed to rehabilitate power lines and restore electricity to the target areas. They were joined by linemen from the Leyte Electric Cooperative (LEYECO) 2, which was servicing thousands of consumers in Tacloban and Palo.

As of yesterday, the Kidlat team installed electrical wirings and meters to 629 out of 6,000 houses at V & G Subdivision in Tacloban, which lost their connections to Yolanda in Nov. 8 last year.

For the past five days, the Cebuano team was able to erect electric poles, wirings and meters to thousands of houses in the barangays of Cacao, Castilla, Terraza, San Agustin, Campitek and San Jose, all in Palo.

Residents in Palo and Tacloban were amazed by the speed of  the team's electrical works, prompting local officials to suggest Kidlat's linemen to train the LEYECO 2 crew on how the job is done in such manner.

Team Kidlat linemen however met a snag in their schedule when they could not erect right away the electric poles because they have to get clearance first from barangay officials, some of whom were not immediately available when needed.

Palo Archbishop John Du offers prayers for the safety of  Task Force Kapatid Cebeco 1, 2, 3, also known as Team Kidlat, and their families during a special Mass at the Palo Cathedral in Palo, Leyte the other day. "I pray for your safety and your family. Thank you for helping us for the immediate power restoration so that we could rise again with the grace of our Lord," said Du in his homily.

The Mass was attended by Silva and Tiu, together with other Kidlat key officials: Victor Chiong, consultant of CEBECO employees union, Lowell Belciña, resident manager of CEBECO-Cebu City office, Loy Crodua, assistant general manager of CEBECO 1, and Virgilio Fortich, general manager of CEBECO 3.

Others were LEYECO 2 general manager Macel Avestruz and employees, and Louie Joy Fernandez of the National Electrification Administration.

Silva told The Freeman that his team gave P500,000 in donation for the repair of the Cathedral, in addition to the P50,000 cash given to Du himself. Silva said the money was collected from contributions of employees and directors of CEBECO 1, 2 and 3.

"I told Archbishop Du that Team Kidlat will provide electrical wirings and connections after the full restoration of the damaged Cathedral," said Silva.

Silva said Du was thankful of the free services of Team Kidlat to the Cathedral. The Catholic Church was supposed to spend P1.5 million for electrical materials and labor for electrical connections. Du also distributed rosary beads to each of the personnel of CEBECO and LEYECO, after the Mass.

Avestruz, for his part, said "The LEYECO 2 family is very much grateful, and will forever be grateful to the CEBECO families for helping the consumers here. We salute the leadership of Father Silva, who has a heart for us and the consumers. The accomplishment we have now could not have been realized if our workforce was not augmented by the CEBECO teams."

There was however a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. brownout in Tacloban and Palo yesterday. And Avestruz explained that it was caused by the preventive maintenance work of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.