ISLAND Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS) Mayor Al David Uy revealed their plan to purchase two additional units of modular generator sets before 2023 ends to address the rotational brownouts in their area.
Uy told TIMES that the generator sets they previously purchased are no longer sufficient to supply the increasing demands of the city.
He stressed that there are still scheduled power interruptions in far-flung areas on the island, including Talicud Island.
“Kung makaloy-an walay calamity since ang state of calamity namo is up to next year, magdungag napud mi kay kung dili namo himoon na, maapektuhan gyud ang kinatibuk-ang ekonomiya sa Samal (Hopefully, there would be no more calamities because our state of calamity is up to next year. If we don’t add more gensets, it would really negatively impact Samal’s economy)” Uy said.
Uy said the persistent power outages contributed to the 10-20% decrease in tourism arrivals on the island as tourists chose other beach destinations like Mati City instead.
“Imagine mo-adto ka sa Samal, maglinya og pila ka oras sa barge, pagsulod nimog Samal, pag abot nimo sa resort, way kuryente, way tubig, way internet, masuko ang mga turista (Imagine going to Samal and wait for hours for the barge. When you arrive at the resort, there’s no power, no water, no Internet. It will really irk the tourist),” Uy said.
“Louy pud ang ubang mga nag-asa nalang sa turista kay wala namay mamalit didto (It’s pitiful for those who rely on tourists because they don’t have earnings),” he added.
He has yet to confirm the budget for the gensets but he recalled that the fund allocated for the previous sets was about P9 million for the two units.
The Samal City Council on May 16 approved the funding to procure generator sets from the 30% local disaster risk reduction and management fund (LDRRMF) in the wake of the island city’s declaration of a state of calamity on May 16 “in response to the ongoing power crisis”.
The mayor is hoping for a long-term solution to the power situation in the island citing that they are paying around P22-P24 for every kilowatt for a poor electrical power supply.
