THE Island Garden City of Samal, the main tourist destination in Davao Region, has been experiencing power outages, said its mayor, Al David Uy, on Monday.In a direct message, Uy said he was “waiting for the details of the rotational power blackout from Nordeco (Northern Davao Electric Cooperative, previously known as Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative).”
In its official Facebook page, Nordeco posted that the metering terminal of the submarine cable, which is connected to the grid through the transmission system of the Davao Light and Power Co., tripped off.
“It (the trip-off point) was immediately fixed and yet, the power still fails to restore,” the electric cooperative said even as it added that “initially, it is determined that the line fault is from the submarine cable.”
Officials of the cooperative have yet to provide a detailed system problem as it said that its technical team has continued to investigate the cause.
Last year, the cooperative announced that it was building a 14-kilometer connection between its distribution line in Maco, Davao de Oro, and the island as both are under its franchise area.
However, both government officials and the tourism sector criticized the project because of the hefty budget of about P1.8 billion as they proposed that the submarine cable connected to the Davao Light facility be instead upgraded as it was less than two kilometers.
As of early this year, the Energy Regulatory Commission had not yet authorized the implementation of the project.
There was also the proposal to use the Samal Island-Davao City connector project, a bridge, as the backbone of the line between the city and the transmission system.
Uy and other officials of the island city, host to several key tourism infrastructure facilities including world-class resorts, have been pushing for its transfer to the franchise area of Davao Light like some parts of Davao del Norte in Panabo City, Carmen, Braulio Dujali and Sto. Tomas.
Just last year, both Houses of Congress approved the transfer of the remaining areas of the province to Davao Light but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed the proposal.
